The media asks: Why oh why won’t Obama compromise with the Republicans?

Are they high?

Steve Benen was watching yesterday morning's Obama presser along with the rest of us, and he noticed the same thing I did. The very first question to the President was a reporter lamenting the supposed fact that Obama simply refuses to compromise with Republicans.

As Steve goes on to point out, when exactly has this President NOT compromised with Republicans? In fact, a large part of the reason President Obama is in the electoral pickle he's in is because he tried to compromise too much with the GOP.

Where did the appearance of weakness come from? From not standing up to the Republicans during the stimulus, during health care reform, and during the various budget showdowns. And why is the public nonplussed over the stimulus and health care reform, and whether either did anything to make life better? Because the President, for the most part, refused to get in the GOP's face and call them on their lies, lest standing up to the GOP on any one issue poison the President's elusive question for over-arching compromise with the GOP.

Let's talk about the stimulus. It's too small, as we've noted before, and thus is a large part of the reason that the economy isn't doing nearly as well as we'd hoped. Why is it too small? In part because the President was being advised by economic lightweights. But the other reason is because the White House didn't want to upset the GOP by asking for too big a stimulus. So, they low-balled it, and then cut another $100bn to make Olympia Snowe happy, and then gave away 35% of the remaining amount to the GOP in the form of near useless tax cuts. The stimulus was too small, and our economy is only limping along, in large part because the President compromised with the GOP.

And how about health care reform. Boy, don't you all remember how the President got in the GOP's face and refused to compromise, demanding they pass a public option? No, in fact the President passed health care reform off to a 6 member gang on Senators, 3 GOP and 3 Dem, that dawdled for months, because of GOP (and some Dem) intransigence, making the way for the Teabaggers to act up and scare all the Dems into submission. And then, after health care reform passed, the Republicans relentlessly attacked it, day in and day out, while the President back off and basically let them, rather than fighting back and risking future compromise.

And who can forget Joe "You Lie!" Wilson?  What did President Obama have the Democrats do when Wilson obscenely yelled at the President during a joint session of Congress?  Rather than call the fire-breathing Republican out, and use his outburst as an opportunity to show how extremist the GOP had become, the President had the Democrats take another look at the health care bill to make sure Wilson's concerns were addressed.

If a Democrat had yelled at President Bush during a joint session of Congress the GOP noise machine, in coordination with the media, would have forced said Democrat to resign.

The reason so many on the left have lost faith in Barack Obama is because of his ongoing efforts to compromise with the devil. I've been more than willing to criticize President Obama when I thought he deserved it, but accusing the man of being unwilling to compromise is laughable when his biggest mistake of the past 3 years has been an over-eagerness to compromise.