I DON'T GET IT

(h/t Atrios)

In his visit to the GOP lawmakers, Pres. Obama expressed a clear understanding of what the conservatives have been doing:

Now, you may not agree with Bob Dole and Howard Baker and Tom -- and certainly you don't agree with Tom Daschle on much...

(LAUGHTER)

... but that's not a radical bunch. But if you were to listen to the debate, and, frankly, how some of you went after this bill, you'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot.

(LAUGHTER)

No, I mean, that's how you guys -- that's how you guys presented it.
...
I'm not suggesting that we're going to agree on everything, whether it's on health care or energy or what have you, but if the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then don't have a lot of room to negotiate with me.

I mean, the fact of the matter is is that many of you, if you voted with the administration on something, are politically vulnerable in your own base, in your own party. You've given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you've been telling your constituents is, "This guy's doing all kinds of crazy stuff that's going to destroy America."

The problem I have with this clear exposition of what the GOPers have been up to is that Pres. Obama basically did the same thing a little over a year ago:

"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.

What Pres. Obama and his political advisers HAVE to realize is that this is how the GOP plays the game and there's really no point NOW in trying to "reach across the aisle." As Steve Benen points out, we need to act as if the positions were reversed and use the tactics that the GOP would use.