"There was too much conciliation, too much presumed good faith, a continuation of the haughty disdain for what raw, bloody partisan politics can achieve that we saw in the last campaign. There was too much reaching out, too much pre-emptive compromise, too much thumb-sucking about the 'shellacking' in 2010, and not enough of grasping the American people by the shoulders and shaking them, saying, 'Do you see what you've done? Allen Fking West?' There has been a lot of argument over the past three years about the limitation of the 'bully pulpit' given the nature of the way things work in our government, and most of it is valid. But there is an educational component to the presidency, too, and part of that component is to remind the people that extended tantrums are not self-government, that electing the unqualified and the half-bright simply because they say the things that you also hear on your radio for 12 hours a day is not a recipe for moving the country forward. The partnership in government didn't 'break down.' The Republicans broke it and then walked away from the splinters. Period. There was nowhere near enough of that kind of talk over the past three years."
Pierce goes on to say why he's sanguine about whether President Obama and his team have finally learned a lesson, but too late.
