SimonG: This is, imo, the whole dilemma of Obamas presidency. He tried to "reunite the house", bring an end to the partisanship that is strangling the legislative process. If you remember his "coming out" speach of '06, you'll notice that his main focus was on the "one America". ("There is no blue America, there is no red America") If he forces to much, he might alienate even more of the tea baggers and cause an even bigger divide in the political parties.
He always tried to play nice, and the Tea Party
and the moderate GOP members always remained on outlandish positions. The GOP itself is divided between the Tea Party and the "so called moderates". The biggest hope is that the current recovery keeps on and takes some wind out of the sail of the Tea Party.
I felt sorry for Obama because I could predict how the republicans would react. Obama waved the white flag at them and asked them to cooperate and what did they do? They became extremely childish, tried to block everything and generally, they did the opposite of what Obama asks which kinda shows how pathetic they are. I think US politics are completely broken, to be honest. Obama had everything to be a great president except that the republicans sought to ruin his reputation no matter what, even if it harmed the country (and it did).
When you have a situation like that, it's impossible to have proper politics and a decent well-oiled government. The politicians are more concerned about their bribes from lobbies than actually making the country prosper not to mention about having them stand out by making the most ridiculous of statements like Newt "let's make the moon the 51st state" Gingrich and Rick "talking out of his ass" Perry.
Seriously, when everyone that high in power just looks out for themselves and their wallets and about getting re-elected, then it's obvious something is very very wrong. US politics make even our Belgian politicians look competent and that's saying a LOT!
