Obama's GOP Outreach Too Little, Too Late

Obama allowed Democrats to scorn Republican input: Rove
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 4, 2010 1:24 AM CST
Obama's GOP Outreach Too Little, Too Late
President Obama takes questions from Republican lawmakers at the GOP House Issues Conference in Baltimore last Friday.   (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Obama's televised question-and-answer session with House Republicans was a photo-op aimed at boosting his poll numbers instead of a real effort to seek input from the GOP, writes Karl Rove. The beleaguered president did get a modest bounce after the meeting, but it came at the expense of further alienating the GOP with his dishonest answers on the budget and stimulus package, Rove notes in the Wall Street Journal.

The president sought to portray Republicans as obstructionist when their input on the stimulus and other issues had actually been scorned by Democratic leader, Rove writes. Obama has "hemmed himself in" by letting his party's congressional leaders draft policy instead of pushing them to compromise with the opposition, Rove writes, and he can expect many more party-line votes in Congress as a result.
(More Karl Rove stories.)

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