Watching the Charlie Cook/Stuart Rothenberg recap of the campaign and the look forward.
They have made an interesting point about how Obama deals with Congress. Cook began by urging people to read the newest Caro book on LBJ because it shows how much he worked with Congress, including the GOP (at a time when the GOP had much smaller numbers than they do today).
He then cites figures showing that President Obama hasn’t even been willing to work much with the Democrats in Congress, let alone the GOP. He points to how when Obama has recreational activities like playing golf or basketball and almost never includes any members of Congress (LBJ on the other hand was always involving members in social activities, almost to the point of driving them nuts)
Rothenberg goes on to compare this to Clinton and point out how he was always reaching out to both parties in Congress.
It will be interesting to see how that plays out over the next two years. Both men (Cook and Rothenberg) are quite non partisan and so their analysis is worth considering.
Certainly it is true that Congress is more partisan that it used to be. Indeed another segment discussed how the GOP and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate could probably sit in a room and hash out a deal over issues but that it would be hard to get it through their caucuses (perhaps in part due to more partisan primaries, with moderates worried about being primaried out)
At the same time even in a more partisan Congress you would think a President could work with members of his own party.
Also Cook is right on the Caro series. Whether you like or loathe LBJ he was a master of the legislative process.