Obama's Malarkey

"Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me." ~ Chinese proverb

Obama and the Back-to-the-Future Campaign  (registration may be required) reports that President Obama promises to be more bipartisan in his second term.   President Obama "promises to be breathtakingly bipartisan. 'I'll wash John Boehner's car,' he told a radio interviewer. 'I'll walk Mitch McConnell's dog.'" 

To borrow a phrase from Joe Biden, "With all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey."

Mr. Obama must have forgotten about the past four years, when he had the opportunity to demonstrate the bipartisan approach that he famously campaigned on in 2008. I guess he thinks most of the independent voters will forget also :-)    Fred Barnes, the author, notes that if Obama had acted on his bipartisan promises from 2008, Mr. Obama would be a shoo-in this time.   

For those that claim, it's the fault of the Republicans, I ask, " What's going to be different in the next four years?"  There will still be Republicans to deal with since President Obama won't get the filibuster proof majority he had in 2009.  So how will Mr. Obama change?

I  think Mr. Obama will become more partisan in a second term since he will have "more flexibility" as revealed in his open mic comment to then Russian President Medvedev. I also believe this WSJ article (registration may be required) that reports, " if he wins a second term, Mr. Obama plans to remain in campaign mode. 'Barack is grayer, but he's wiser from the battles,' says Charles Ogletree, a friend and one of Mr. Obama's professors at Harvard. 'This time Barack will use the bully pulpit.'"  

Based on this perspective and his actions of the first four years, I expect even more divisiveness, more vilifying, more blame and even less acceptance of responsibility in Mr. Obama's second term.

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