Obama's Failed Bipartisan Efforts

Video: Bipartisanship Hopes Fizzling

President Obama took office pledging to end the rancor that was contaminating official Washington. A year later, it's clear that his effort has failed, just as it fizzled when George W. Bush said he would end the capital's divisions in 2001, when Bill Clinton promised to work with the opposition in 1993, and when George H. W. Bush pledged to create the "age of the offered hand" in 1989.

Political polarization is at least as bad as and possibly worse than it's been for a long time. Congressional Republicans are fiercely united against Obama on many issues. His healthcare bill received no GOP votes in the Senate and only one in the House. His proposals for slowing climate change and overhauling the energy laws have gotten scant Republican support, and his economic stimulus package from last year is still being fiercely condemned by GOP leaders. Of course, partisanship is not a one-way street. The Democrats took much the same approach, serving as relentless opponents of GOP Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush for many years.

But today's divisions seem more extreme. "Polarization is the evil twin of partisanship," says Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers–the State University of New Jersey. "Partisanship is natural. People, for example, are asking fundamental questions about the role of government, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's the vehemence. It's the personalization. It's the search for immediate political advantage. It's the volume and intensity of conflict." All this undermines the ability of legislators "to work openly [with members of the other major party] and not fear they are going to be seen as working with the 'enemy,' " Baker says.

Obama is accepting part of the blame. "That's what's been lost . . . that whole sense of changing how Washington works," he told People magazine in its latest edition. He added: "What I haven't been able to do in the midst of this [economic] crisis is bring the country together in a way that we had done in the inauguration" last January.

The most recent example of Washington's polarization was last week's extended confrontation over some poorly chosen and insensitive words from Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, and Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Spokesmen for the Democratic and Republican national committees and the parties' congressional and senatorial committees have been trading fusillades of invective nearly every day via news releases, E-mails to reporters, and interviews. "No question," says a Republican strategist, "political people think that if you take your foot off the gas, you'll get left behind. These people feel compelled to floor it all the time. We are operating in as hyperpolitical an environment as you can imagine."

A White House strategist adds that cable TV shows keep even minor controversies going as long as possible, on the theory that conflict and ridicule drive ratings. Adding to the sensational atmosphere are the bloggers, the twitterers, YouTube, and other social media.

Steele's case was bad enough. He used a derogatory term to refer to American Indians. But Reid's case was more explosive because it involved racial remarks about the president of the United States. Reid was quoted as saying in 2008 that then candidate Barack Obama had a good chance to win the presidency because he was "light-skinned" and did not talk with a "Negro dialect."

Reid quickly phoned Obama and apologized, and the president, while admitting that the remarks were "unfortunate," accepted the mea culpa. That wasn't enough for some Republicans, who called for Reid to resign as majority leader.

Obama and his aides say the administration will try to put all this aside and extend another olive branch. "The president is going to continue to reach out to Republicans," says another White House strategist. "He will give them a seat at the table. It's up to the Republicans to decide if they will accept his offer." For their part, Republicans say they will work with the White House. But so far, all this talk has seemed hollow and has produced little cooperation.

There is a larger problem. If the politicians continue their bickering and if the pundits continue to incite them, the country will be left with what most voters abhor, a prolonged stalemate in Washington. And that will generate more cynicism about the ability of the governing establishment to function, which won't be good for anyone. 

• See photos of the Obamas behind the scenes.
• See a slide show of the 10 keys to an Obama comeback.