Compare and contrast. Here is President Obama, asked about whether he thinks he’ll be able to work with Republicans after next week’s election:
I’m a pretty stubborn guy when it comes to [] trying to get cooperation. I don’t give up just because I didn’t get cooperation on this issue; I’ll try the next issue. If the Republicans don’t agree with me on fiscal policy, maybe they’ll agree with me on infrastructure. If they don’t agree with me on infrastructure, I’ll try to see if they agree with me on education….I don’t go into the next two years assuming that there’s just going to be gridlock. We’re going to keep on working to make sure that we can get as much done as possible because folks are hurting out there.
And here is John Boehner, likely to be the Republican Speaker of the House next year:
“This is not a time for compromise, and I can tell you that we will not compromise on our principles,” Boehner said during an appearance on conservative Sean Hannity’s radio show….”I love Judd Gregg, but maybe he doesn’t get it,” Boehner said Wednesday in a rebuke to Gregg, the top Republican on budget issues in the Senate who’s set to retire at the end of his term in January. “We’re going to do everything — and I mean everything we can do — to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can.”
“It,” in this case, is healthcare reform, but I think Boehner made it pretty clear that the same sentiment applies to pretty much everything else too. It’s gonna be a long two years.
