Annals of Republican Hypocrisy No. 47,313: Hands across the aisle

Here is Peggy Noonan: “He [Obama] misread his Republican opponents from day one. If he had been large-spirited and conciliatory he would have effectively undercut them, and kept them from uniting. (If he’d been large-spirited with Mr. Romney, he would have undercut him, too.) Instead he was toughly partisan, he shut them out, and positions hardened. In time Republicans came to think he doesn’t really listen, doesn’t really hear. So did some Democrats.”

Yes, that was Obama’s problem. He wasn’t large-spirited and conciliatory. He didn’t reach his hands across the aisle. He didn’t reach his hands across the aisle, Peggy, because the Republicans fucking cut them off.

Afterwords
A reader at Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish sends in the following news item from January, 2009: “Obama Tuesday night trekked to the Chevy Chase, Md., home of conservative columnist George F. Will to talk politics and get to know some of his fiercest intellectual adversaries: Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Larry Kudlow, David Brooks, Rich Lowry, Peggy Noonan, Michael Barone, and Paul Gigot.”

Sullivan comments: “A woman who personally experienced Obama’s early outreach to the right now insists he did nothing of the kind. Romnesia? Or just another massive fucking lie?”