Bi-Partisanship And Obama

A reader writes:

You reader wrote:

What action has Obama taken that could possibly anger anyone (other than the Clintons) in his own party?

One could have asked the same of Reagan - when did he ever take a stand, or make a policy, that truly angered his own party? Perhaps his work with Gorbachev qualified at first, but in retrospect it was an extremely sensible, conservative action to take. Reagan was very partisan, but he always worked pretty well with the other party, in part because he had to - a massive contrast to the current president.

Somehow we've come to define bipartisanship as a willingness to rebel against one's own party.

Certainly that's the image that McCain has cultivated at times (when he wasn't trying to win his party's nomination). Obama strikes me as a soft partisan - a convinced progressive on most issues who will nonetheless work hard to find common ground with Republicans outside of the routine partisan battlegrounds, on issues like ethics reform, nuclear proliferation, alternative energy, etc.

Lastly, the John Roberts vote is often held up as evidence of Obama's knee-jerk partisanship. But I defy anyone to read his statement on Roberts and detect knee-jerk partisanship in it.