Commentary: What stalled the sweeping change Obama promised

Commentary: What stalled the sweeping change Obama promised
By Carl Leubsdorf | The Dallas Morning News
Posted on Thursday, October 29, 2009

On the night before the 2008 election, Barack Obama sounded a familiar mantra signaling the impending success of his once unlikely presidential bid. "We are one day away from changing America," he told a cheering Virginia crowd.

The next day, by a solid majority of 8.5 million votes, Americans elected the 47-year-old Illinois senator, and he set out to implement the "big change" for which he contended the times were right. On Tuesday, HBO will premiere a film capturing the promise and optimism of Obama's campaign. But a year later, the premise that the new approach of a new president could ensure such sweeping change no longer seems so simple.

A variety of factors -- some predictable, others unforeseen -- have changed the landscape and made it likely that any ultimate changes will be more incremental and less dramatic than Obama promised.

~snip~

-Washington's nasty partisan tone persisted, despite Obama's vow to conduct a less acrimonious, post-partisan presidency.

Both sides deserve blame. Republicans say Obama's reliance on congressional Democrats shows he wasn't interested in their help, but many Republicans want to stop Obama just as they defeated Bill Clinton and the Democrats 16 years ago. In his new book, "The Clinton Tapes," author Taylor Branch says former Senate GOP leader Bob Dole once told President Clinton that the opposition's job is not making deals but "making the president fail, so he could be replaced as quickly as possible."


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/340/story/77973.html

Republicans have set the 'nasty partisan tone'. Reaching out to them does nothing but risk the loss of a few fingers.

America Congresstipation.