I already knew bipartisanship was a sham, so why be surprised at this?

Allah at HotAir is chiding President Obama for abandoning bipartisanship, based on this report from Politico:

During a morning meeting with congressional leaders from both parties, President Obama acknowledged the philosophical differences between his stimulus package and the Republican plan – but, sources familiar with the conversation said, Obama then noted: “I won.”…

Allah introduced that excerpt with “The golden age of bipartisanship beginneth,” and followed it with “Vintage O: Always willing to hear the other side out, never willing to actually vote with them.”

Well, why should we expect him to vote with the other side?  (It’s not like he’s a Democratic John McCain.)  The president has a point, and he might have even said it in a way that simply stressed that the public has certain expectations, rather than to trumpet a winner-take-all mentality.  Don’t get me wrong, I think the guy is arrogant as hell, but I also think he’s too smooth a politician to use “I won” as a blunt force instrument, even in private.  Then again, the ability to use his recent win as a bludgeon to get things done certainly has a limited lifespan.  So who the hell knows?  (And really, is this all that different from W’s “political capital” comment the day after his reelection?)

Despite chiding the president, Allah seems to recognize that this “I won” approach isn’t all that unreasonable this early on..  And Allah’s  dead on about another  thing: we’re not going to be able to do much, at least in the near term, to avoid being steamrolled:

Here’s where we pause a moment to daydream about what a difference 45 Senate seats would have made instead of 41, then come to our senses and realize that it would have made no difference at all. The GOP’s simply not going to obstruct Hopenchange this early, when he has this much goodwill from the public, when the economic circumstances are this dire, and when even conservative economists are endorsing some sort of stimulus.

Remember when W genuinely reached across the aisle in the early part of his presidency?  That got us No Child Left Behind.  Then it got his hand friggin’ chopped off.  Ace, who finds the whole damn “I won” thing too depressing to write much about it, nonetheless offers some good advice in recommending that Republicans not follow the “hand-chopping” approach we were subjected to the last eight years, but instead opt for something more constructive. I seriously wonder, though, if he’s giving the public too much benefit of the doubt with his suggestion.  Crap, now I’m getting depressed.

Optimistic Patriot wants the “Republican intelligentsia” to defend their “he’ll govern as a centrist” line from  before the election.  Did they ever really believe that?  At least the idiots at Republicans for Obama never got specific enough to be proven wrong . . . they just went for hope ‘n’ change, claiming that Obama could “unify the country” — never mind his policies.  To which I wrote:

Folks, if your chief criterion for president is someone who can maintain enough popularity to win support of his proposals rather than what those proposals are, then you should never vote for another Republican again. Because every one of them, regardless of policy, is going to be relentlessly savaged by the media and thus — unless truly able to communicate with the people over the heads of the media and the politicians a la Ronald Reagan — is unlikely to command similar levels of support.

There’s more at American Pundit, who makes the excellent point that “bipartisanship as usual” — shutting out the other side — is not “change” (though I’d limit his definition to Democratic-style bipartisanhip).

Bipartisanship is all a bunch of crap anyway.  More on that later.

UPDATES: Jules Crittendon agrees that this isn’t all that different from W’s “political capital” remark (but, unlike me, takes the time to flesh out the comparison), and gives the encouraging reminder that W’s party still managed to lose both houses of Congress the next election, and provides some amusing hypothetical scenarios in which Obama might be tempted to take out the “I won” club.

The Forum nails it thus:

Maybe its just me, but its pretty obvious that Obama is playing the congressional Republicans like a fiddle.  And of course, the sheep in the Republican party don’t even realize it.  They’ve been getting ready to cave for weeks now.  Its been stated over and over again, how the Republicans are scared of confrontation, scared of being called racist, obstructionist, the party of no, etc.