There seems to be a consensus forming that Obama wasted his time reaching out to Republicans. A couple of weeks ago I might have agreed, but I’m coming around to atypical liberal Tim Fernholz‘s view. It’s hard to imagine that Obama would have gotten more out of the Republican moderates who decided to support the bill even if he had been nasty, and upon reflection it seems obvious that’s exactly what Republicans were trying to bait him into doing. It’s also hard to imagine that Obama would have come out of this smelling like roses if he had gotten down and dirty.
Also, it’s really not his style, Obama is Mohammed Ali, not George Foreman. He plays the game best the way he knows how to play it. I think the question of whether Obama should have started with a bigger number and a more ambitious stimulus is also entirely separate from whether his bi-partisan overtures “worked.” They certainly made him look a lot better than his opponents, even if he couldn’t get them to come along. I think Steve Benen is probably parsing Rahm Emanuel‘s remarks correctly, bi-partisanship in the future may not be the first priority but people looking for street fights in the future will probably be disappointed.
— A. Serwer
