If part of his goal was to, unlike The Regime, steer away from abusing his presidential authority, he can check that one off his list. He's asked for and accepted more bipartisan input in three weeks than The Regime asked for in eight years. He's even admitted to "screwing up", a concept kept at least at arm's length during The Regime's reign and that's another hole that can be punched. If the president wants to be better than politics, he has to walk away from the politicians.
Right now he's as popular as any new president in history. The longer he waits for bipartisanship to kick in, the more his popularity will drop. It'll be just like the 2006 midterms when Democrats were elected to effect change, but decided to support the status quo.
If he's nothing else, Barack Obama is an eloquent and convincing speaker. Isn't it very easy to envision Barack Obama standing before the American people, saying that he's done all he knows how to do to combine the change he promised with bipartisanship? He can say, however, that not everyone is/was on the same bipartisan page as he is and that the economic crisis transcends waiting for that to happen.
If he doesn't get the votes to avoid a filibuster, he should merely let The Republicans fillibust away (fillibust?). Let them all speak for hour upon hour, day after day, stalling this recovery package and trying to explain why jobs keep dropping like flies. Let 'em do it. Even though Fox News will no doubt portray the fillibustering legislators as American heroes, Americans who are losing jobs, pensions and other benefits will view them as the tight assed, non-populist fools that they are and will begin to demand that they shut up and vote.
Most Republican governors want HR1 to pass and that should overshadow the colorful clown suits that congressional Republicans will be wearing during their useless filibuster.
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