And so the cycle continues. Gridlock, stalemate — all of it symptomatic of early 21st politics which has seemingly eschewed the ideas of consensus and compromise as signs of weakness as opposed to qualities that could solve problems. And Time’s Mark Halperin believes Barack Obama’s weekly address this week won’t make things better — but worse:
Writes Halperin:
Both sides blame the other, and there is blame to go around.
I will say it again: Lord help the winner of the presidential race (and the Nation) if he doesn’t figure out how to run, win, AND end up with a mandate and way to get the other party to cooperate starting even BEFORE January 20, 2013.
The fiscal cliff looms.
The problem is politicians — and many partisans — want to push the other side over, even if they go over the side with them.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.