Obama Will Not Give Up On Bipartisanship

President Barack Obama met with progressive bloggers Duncan Black, Joe Sudbay, John Amato and Oliver Willis. Obama told the bloggers that he is a "stubborn guy" and will continue to push for bipartisanship with Republicans.

THE PRESIDENT: Look, the -- I’m a pretty stubborn guy when it comes to, on the one hand, trying to get cooperation. I don’t give up just because I didn’t get cooperation on this issue; I’ll try the next issue. If the Republicans don’t agree with me on fiscal policy, maybe they’ll agree with me on infrastructure. If they don’t agree with me on infrastructure, I’ll try to see if they agree with me on education.

So I’m just going to keep on trying to see where they want to move the country forward.

Republican have floated the possibility of shutting down government.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland

"The government shut down," said Westmoreland -- and the crowd started cheering. "That's what I wanted to hear! A good clap for that!"

The previous government shutdown was a political disaster for Newt Gingrich and made Bill Clinton look like the serious adult. Fortunately, John Boehner realizes this and stated Republicans will not shut down the federal government. Republicans have made it clear they will not pass anything. Republicans filibustered the bill helping small busineeses get loans and tax cuts. Republicans have traditionally supported business tax cuts and easier access to credit. The filibuster was merely about destroying Obama politically. Democrats were able to break the filibuster with the vote of retiring Sen. George Voinovich.

This isn't just political rhetoric from Obama. He actually believes he can get bipartisanship from Republicans. A Democratic strategist A Democratic strategist told David Corn that Obama refused to give up on bipartisanship during the crafting of the health care bill. The result was zero Republican votes for the final product.

It took "so goddamn long," of course, partly because the president and his aides were overly deferential to Congress—especially to a few Senate Republicans they were trying to rope in. "We told the White House repeatedly," says the Democratic Senate strategist, "that it was a mistake to think they could negotiate with Republicans. They never listened."

Obama's first two years have been a huge disappointment. If Obama continues to buy his own 2008 news clippings of being a transcendiary figure then he will accomplish nothing. Obama's bipartisanship has achieved health care reform that gives insurers a greater monopoly, financial reform that did not force the major investment banks to pay into a fund in the event they bailout and an energy bill that advocated more offshore drilling. All of these terrible corporate-friendly policies Republicans filibustered merely for midterm election gains. That is what Obama's bipartisanship has accomplished.