Obama Emphasizes Bipartisanship: Dems And GOP Unite In Displeasure

[Joanne98]

President Barack Obama pledged on Wednesday night to push forward with the agenda he set in place upon entering office, declaring to a packed House chamber: "I don't quit."

But the fighting spirit that infused his first State of the Union address gave rise to the question of whether the president can find a political strategy that will fulfill his rhetoric.

And at the same time, his continued emphasis on bipartisanship worried Democrats, while failing to appease Republicans.

Some Democrats expressed concerns Wednesday night that he had failed to learn one of the key lessons from this first year in office: that efforts to find bipartisan consensus invariably lead to watered-down legislation that still doesn't get the GOP votes.

"It is fine if he wants to meet with Republicans once a week, but I hope he doesn't think those meetings will produce anything," Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who worked on the losing side of the recent Massachusetts Senate race told the Huffington Post. "I hope he understand that bipartisanship won't work and it won't produce the results he wants.

Continued>>>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/28/obama-emphasizes-bipartis_n_439753.html