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President Obama was in surgery this afternoon at Walter Reed Hospital, after GOP Senators had finished feasting on his right arm and leg, but Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was upbeat.
"The President thinks we made real progress today toward his goal of bipartisan compromise," Gibbs said. "He gave up an arm and a leg, and Senators McConnell, McCain, Kyle, and DeMint gave up almost an hour of their precious time," Gibbs explained. He dismissed what he called "dead-enders in the professional left" who complained that Obama had "given up too much."
"I'm sure there are those on the other side who feel that the Republicans didn't get enough," Gibbs said. But then he admitted that another lunch was scheduled for tomorrow.
"Aren't you afraid that after tomorrow, Obama won't have a leg left to stand on?" Gibbs was asked by a reporter whose name cannot be repeated for national security reasons. He was immediately whisked away by Secret Service agents.
"We're all encouraged by the President's new spirit of bipartisan cooperation," said Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska. "It's just unfortunate that it's taken so long for him to begin to show some real consideration for the views of others."
"This is a very hopeful sign," wrote David Broder, in an unprecedented front-page Op-Ed in the Washington Post. "The Republican senators deserve high praise for having the patience to wait for the President to finally pay attention to them. All Americans owe them a profound debt of gratititude for not having him assasinated years ago."
But others worried that the President's change of heart had come too late.
"We all had such high hopes," New York Times columnist David Brooks lamented in private. "If only he had done this on day one, he could have been truly a great president. As it is, he won't even be able to feed the entire Senate."
And still others were openly disdainful. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich called it "a cheap stunt."
"Leaders lead from day one," said talkshow host Rush Limbaugh. "This is so many days late, I can't count on my fingers don't know how you call it anything but pathetic."
Fox News host Glenn Beck called it "a clever Communist trick," shaking his head. "Hitler is kicking himself in the head," Beck added. "If only he'd thought of it, he would have won WWII."
"Real leadership requires real sacrifice," Gingrich pontificated. "I just don't think that Obama has it in him."
Not any more, at least.
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