Now ... Obama wants civility

Our current president campaigned by relentlessly criticizing the previous president. Despite the rhetoric, and despite being graded as the "most liberal" member of the U.S. Senate, the American people accepted Barack Obama's word that he would bring a new kind of politics to Washington.

But within days of being sworn in, President Obama let his Republican counterparts know who was now in charge:

President Obama listened to Republican gripes about his stimulus package during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning - but he also left no doubt about who's in charge of these negotiations. "I won," Obama noted matter-of-factly, according to sources familiar with the conversation.

The first initiative of the Obama Administration was to push through an $825 billion stimulus package - promising in part that the stimulus bill would keep unemployment under 8%. Despite campaign promises to work in a bipartisan manner, Obama allowed the stimulus discussions to be held behind closed doors - with congressional Republicans shut out.

A few months later, Obama's political capital would rise further with the swearing in of Al Franken as senator of Minnesota. Upon the seating of Franken, the Democrats held all the power in Washington: the presidency, the House, and a filibuster-proof Senate. The Republicans, as of July 2009, did not have the numbers to stop any Democratic initiative.

Meanwhile, depsite promises that it would not rise above 8%, unemployment had gone over 10%. And the economy continued to sputter. But rather than address the economy head-on, Obama and the Democratic congress decided to spend its time on environmental legislation (cap and trade) and healthcare reform.

Despite having the numbers to pass whatever bill they wanted, Democrats couldn't agree among themselves on cap and trade. It died after passing in the House. And then the Democrats spent several more months arguing among themselves about health care - again closing Republicans out of the process - failing again to pass anything.

Despite having more than enough Democrat votes to pass these proposals on their own, President Obama continued during this time to deride Republicans as "the party of no" and "obstructionists," raising the question: how can you be an obstructionist when you do not have the ability to obstruct?

After months of watching Rome burn on the economy, the voters of Massachussetts let the Democrats know they had had enough, handing the country's safest Democratic senate seat over to Republican Scott Brown.

Obama and the Democrats held all of the power in Washington for about six months, ignored the economy and unemployment during this time, and instead tried unsuccessfully to cram unpopular social legislation down the throats of Americans who didn't want it. And only in retrospect did Obama realize the consequence of his actions. Losing the 41st seat in the Senate now means that Obama has to go through the Republican party to get anything done. And do you know what is suddenly important to Obama? Civility.

After a year of bashing Republicans as obstructionists - following two more years on the campaign trail criticizing his predecessor, Obama now suddenly sees the importance of civility (which was of such urgent importance he spoke of it at length ... at a prayer breakfast), even taking time to preach a little to Republicans about the topic. To bellyache now about civility sure does take some nerve and arrogance, but we have just the guy for it.

Obama's message here follows his usual theme of political calculation. To get any legislation through now, Obama needs the cooperation of at least one Republican. Obama wants that one Republican to think he's civil, rather than the guy he's been behaving like for the last year. But on the other hand - if the newfound civility doesn't work and Obama's legislative initiatives are stopped cold - Obama wants to be able to say he offered civility and the Republicans didn't reciprocate. Because you see, it's all just a political chess game for Obama.

[Rebuttals welcome]