Krugman: Fiscal cliff 'has finally laid bare the con ... of the G.O.P.'s political strategy'

[ShadesOfBlue]

31. its not being liked and respected by the other party...

it is about trying to do the right thing for the country by being fair, open to compromise and transparent and HOPING that such actions would at least generate some return of civility and cooperation. That's the act of a grownup. The country was facing a crisis worse than the 9/11 attacks and as you recall Bush got cooperation across the board from Democrats after that (for the first year or two at least). Obama never got 1/50th of that cooperation and nobody, not even you Monday morning quarterbacks on message boards, could have predicted the amount of animosity and the obstruction and the hate that would be awaiting Obama from the very first day in office. It is unprecedented in American history so excuse Obama if he didn't see that coming. I can understand being critical of him on this front after his first two years in office when he still tried to extend a hand to the other side, but I'm not buying criticism of him thinking he could do this when he was first sworn into office. Also, I think in the back of his mind he felt the press and the public would at least remember that he bent over backwards to work with the Republicans, but obviously that didn't really happen either and thus he got just as much blame. The lesson was long and painful but I don't hold it against him from trying to put the nation's needs ahead of politics when he got it.