Finally, President Obama

So, there's been a lot of hemming and hawing over whether the President has been paying too much attention to creating bipartisanship over the stimulus bill. As we know, the Republicans in the House threw a goose egg on the big board despite all of the President's outreach. The GOP then went on to gloat and slap themselves on the back for putting one over on Obama. I found this to be foolish: why spit in the eye of a President with a 70% approval rating? Now, I understand Obama's call for bipartisanship, I think he should continue making overtures, and, hopefully, his moves will lay a nice foundation for actual compromise. However, I think what he said today at the Dept. of Energy is an appropriate response to said spit in the eye:

In the last few days, we've seen proposals arise from some in Congress that you may not have read, but you'd be very familiar with, because you've been hearing them for the last 10 years, maybe longer. They're rooted in the idea that tax cuts alone can solve all our problems, that government doesn't have a role to play, that half measures and tinkering are somehow enough, that we can afford to ignore our most fundamental economic challenges: the crushing cost of health care, the inadequate state of so many of our schools, our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

So let me be clear: Those ideas have been tested, and they have failed. They've taken us from surpluses to an annual deficit of over $1 trillion. And they've brought our economy to a halt. And that's precisely what the election we just had was all about. The American people have rendered their judgment, and now's the time to move forward, not back. Now's the time for action.

Elections have consequences. We need a little more of the "I won," Barack Obama, and a little less of the conciliatory one.

(h/t: Ben Smith)