Is Bipartisianship What We Currently Need?

Obama made bipartisanship a central issue during his 2008 Presidential Campaign and succeeded in a lot of ink being spilled on his "post-partisan" nature throughout the campaign. And I, among others, applauded his effort. But looking forward, is bipartisanship really the answer to our country's current problems? While Obama has had a career of impressing the opposition party, be it as the President of the Harvard Law Review, a law professor, a state senator, a US senator, or as a Presidential candidate, it would seem he has now hit a brick wall. There is no longer common ground for the President to find with the opposition party. Or at least very little of it.

This became strikingly clear with the Stimulus Package in which, despite a few direct concessions, it still received zero Republican votes last week in the House. And then only three moderate votes in the Senate which were bought with even more concessions.

Now he has a weakened stimulus package that is still likely to be without GOP support. The Republicans have lost some popularity with the public from this (not that they had a lot to begin with), but as many have noted, it doesn't matter if the public disagrees with the GOP right now. It matters in two years and in four years, that is to say election years. If the stimulus proves a failure, Republicans can rally around a "I Told You So" call to arms and sweep back into power. Never mind the destruction its failure does to the economy in the mean time.

With that said, I still believe bipartisanship has its place in politics, just not when the gap between the two sides are so great. So come Obama's next big initiative, be it Health Care or Energy, he should learn the lesson and reach to the Left because the Right won't be compromising. Unless it's the effectiveness of the legislation.

Last point: Bipartisanship may work well for approval ratings, but not so well for electoral success.