Hope and Fail

Obama admits he hasn’t changed tone in Washington

President Obama spoke at two fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee in Boston, and at one he bemoaned the gridlock that plagues the political process:

What our recent debates have lain bare is that even though we’ve had some success overcoming political gridlock, we haven’t had as much success in changing political gridlock. We have to admit that. And I wanted to change the tone in Washington — it hasn’t changed, not yet.

For those who lived in a cave in 2008, Obama ran a campaign based on change — Hope and Change, specifically. From the very start of his national presence, he preached unity:

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight, there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America.

There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.

The pundits, the pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.

We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states.

There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.

We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In all fairness, Obama is not alone. President George W. Bush had the same regret (he campaigned on being a “uniter not a divider”), telling Charlie Gibson in December 2008:

I think one of the big disappointments of the presidency has been the fact that the tone in Washington got worse, not better.

But Obama has no one to blame but himself. From the start of his presidency, he has governed as a partisan — choosing to work exclusively within his party on major legislation from the Recovery Act to health care reform.

Despite what the president says, the process does matter.

John McCain, who has gotten in trouble in his own party for working with the other side on many occasions, said the president shouldn’t expect cooperation for the rest of the year because, “They have poisoned the well in what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.”

As president, Barack Obama ignored his admonition that, “There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America,” and instead was one “who embraced the politics of anything goes.”