Obama made the mistake of working across the aisle

[mdbl]

In 2009 he said:

"You know, when I made a series of overtures to the Republicans — going over to meet with both Republican caucuses; you know, putting three Republicans in my Cabinet, something that is unprecedented; making sure that they were invited here to the White House to talk about the economic recovery plan — all those were not designed simply to get some short-term votes," Obama said. "They were designed to try to build up some trust over time. And I think that as I continue to make these overtures, over time hopefully that will be reciprocated."

So, how did that work out for ya? Let's hope you and all future Democrats have FINALLY learned that lesson.

[apcalc]

1. that was a huge error, and time was wasted when the house and senate were both Democratic.

[JudyM]

21. +5000! In fairness, Harry Reid deserves the lions' share of the blame.

[DetlefK]

2. It's a double-standard for Democrats.

The media said, Clinton should include Republicans in her cabinet as a gesture of bipartisanship.

Now that Trump has won? Somehow nobody is talking about how he should include Democrats to bring the country together...

[mdbl]

3. its obvious that Repuglicans own the media

that's why it's so liberal.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. In all fairness

there are probably not many (any?) Democrats whom could be persuaded to work for Trump (with the possible exception of Tulsi Gabbard?). Hell, he's having a hard time stocking his (mis-)Administration with Republicans or people willing to be part of the looming disaster.

[JHan]

4. And then democrats abandoned him mid-term 2010

[LAS14]

5. I don't want to live in the midst of civil war. We have to model...

... a willingness to work across the aisle whenever the opportunity presents itself. I don't hold out hopes for such opportunities in the near term, but I sure don't want my party to become a left version of Mitch McConnell's.

[KingCharlemagne]

7. A " 'left version' of Mitch MocConnell's"? Please proceed - nt

[LAS14]

16. I don't want the Dems to be focussed on denying...

... Trump/the GOP anything they want even if there's a potential for getting something good for the American people. That was Mitch McConnell's stupid, destructive philosophy. I want to stress that I don't hold out hope for much of that sort of potential. But that should be our focus.

[KingCharlemagne]

6. Support our Oops! - nt

[randome]

9. Bullshit. Stop Monday morning quarterbacking.

If he hadn't tried to work with the GOP, we would have exactly NOTHING accomplished instead of what we have.

What we have is not enough but it's better than NOTHING.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[mdbl]

10. What do we have because of laws passed by a Repug Congress during the Obama admin?

I would like to know what you know.

[randome]

13. ACA. Saved us from the Great Depression. Jobs (unemployment rate at 4.9%). Expanded LGBT rights.

Increased infrastructure spending.
Increased federal contractor minimum wage to $10.10.
Scolded Congress into approving a $305 billion highways bill.

Is it enough? No. It's never enough. Kicking and screaming at Congress would have gotten us a lot less.

http://pleasecutthecrap.com/obama-accomplishments/
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[mdbl]

14. The ACA was passed in the first two years with a Democratic Congress

That's all we got and nothing since. The infrastructure spending since then was at the expense of any social program out there. Sorry, it 's not enough for me to get excited about since the ACA may be no more in a year or two. Working across the aisle has been to the benefit of no one but a few. The only other accomplishments by Obama were by executive order. I expressly asked for laws. But you can believe all those executive orders will stand the test of time, if you want to.

[sylvanus]

20. And the ACA was a plan designed by the Heritage Foundation. Worse than nothing.

[sylvanus]

19. What we have is damn near nothing,

What we got was some watered down republican bullshit.
Nothing that Obama was responsible for could be considered a democratic or progressive policy.
We elected Republican lite and the Repub.'s kept moving the center further right.
Remember when Obama was first running, he said the President he most admired was Regan,
ya'll should've taken him at his word.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. In hindsight, maybe

I think that he got elected on the theory- enunciated in his brilliant 2004 DNC Speech- that he could and would be a unifying POTUS after the divisive Bush II (mis-)Administration and that everybody would naturally come to get together in order to get out of the financial crisis we were in at the time. Republicans, obviously taking their cues from Rush Limbaugh, ultimately decided that they weren't going to bow down or cower to a popularly elected African-American Democratic POTUS and a Democratic Congress, so they resolved that they were going to obstruct him and Democrats in Congress at every turn and in any which way they could so that they could make him an unpopular one-term POTUS and keep him from getting anything positive accomplished and certainly had no interest in helping fix any problems that President Obama's predecessor had caused. President Obama, I think, eventually figured out that Republicans weren't interested in working with him to tend to the welfare of the country but his window to accomplish things largely closed in 2010 due to losing (and never regaining) full Democratic support in Congress.

[dawg]

12. :(

[mythology]

15. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind

Your approach guarantees no change.

[LAS14]

17. Excellent. Can't believer this is the first time I've heard it.

[mdbl]

22. yes, the whole world is blind

and has no Social Security Disability to deal with it either.

[Skittles]

18. that was a HUGE waste of time and a terrible mistake

Hillary would NEVER have done that

[StevieM]

23. Obama was a great president but appointing James Comey as FBI Director was his biggest mistake.

And I think he knows it.