@SeventhSense , Obama hasn’t divided the country. The Republicans decided on that course of action before he took the oath of office. I don’t know if you remember one of the first pieces of legislation enacted after Obama was sworn in – an extension of the time allocated for the DTV switchover. The House Republicans voted unanimously against it. This wasn’t health care; there wasn’t anything really at stake in terms of the budget, good reasons for the delay, and no significant down side. They did it as a symbolic show of unity in opposition to Obama and the Democratic majority.
The only bills in Congress that get any air time are the big ones, like the Recovery Act and the health care bill. If you look more closely at how Congress has operated since Obama took office, you’ll see a clear and significant pattern of obstructionism. We all saw Sotomayor confirmed without a filibuster attempt, but lesser judicial appointments have been held up routinely. Senate Republicans even held up the vote on defense appropriations to slow down business on the health bill. They are in this for blood, and Obama would be wasting his time trying to reach a compromise with them.
He has bigger problems with his own party. More on that here. He needs to drag Nancy Pelosi into the Oval Office and give her the talk. He might be wasting his time with Reid, since he’s probably going to be out of office next year, but he needs to bust some heads in the Senate, too. Fuck the Republicans, fuck the filibuster, get legislation through on Reconciliation. It’s the only thing that will save the country, not to mention the Democrats, in the long run.