I think I understand now the pattern that Obama is using. He seems to do the same thing every time.
- He calls for "bipartisanship" and treats his opposition respectfully, and as equals.
- We activists and partisans howl with indignity, and whine that he’s being too soft and is appeasing those Repug fuckers, who don’t deserve even the slightest bit of respect, and he’s going to lose the whole thing because of it.
- Obama ignores the partisanship, and keeps treating everyone nicely anyway.
- The Repugs respond by being total dickwads. Not just being uncooperative, but downright rude, boorish, and even frightening in their level of vitriol and thughgishness.
- While still being nice and respectful and conciliatory, Obama responds to their obnoxiousness by moving– much to the delight of us partisans– to the left!
- The Repugs respond by becoming totally unhinged.
- Obama starts pointing out the partisanship and actual silliness of the Repugs, and shifts even slightly more to the left, as reasonable people kind of shake their heads at the Repugs and join us in supporting Obama.
- Lather, rinse, repeat. The whole cycle continues, until, of course, Obama wins.
He’s done this several times now, and it has worked every time. In his Senatorial campaign, in the Presidential primary, in the 2008 general election, with the stimulus, with the clean energy bill, with the Sotomayor confirmation, and now with medical care.
Basically, he decides to be reasonable and way too nice, but as his opponents decide to respond by not acting in good faith, he digs in further to his position, but also just keeps on being nice and willing to compromise, and lets them dig themselves into a hole.
That’s because, I think, that he wants to compromise, but, alas, the opposite side doesn’t want to. The big difference with this guy is that he lets them own the problem of their intransigence. It’s simply not his problem if the Repugs don’t want to deal in good faith. It’s their problem, and they own it.
Whatever, hey, it works.
UPDATE: Cool! Governor Dean confirms that this is exactly what Obama is doing! Thinking about this a bit more, it seems that having the first African-American president is a very helpful thing: he’s studied Dr. King. A lot. The tactic Obama is using– which Dr. Dean correctly identifies as "smart"– is exactly how the Civil Rights movement did it. Be dignified, be peaceful, be strong, be calm, and let the other side bring out the water cannons, batons, and attack dogs.