Our partisan president

I am worried. Not because I am enamored of bipartisanship. I like Ike – but I like “Give ’em Hell” Harry, too. I have no problem with the sharp elbows approach, even coming from the White House. I am worried because I thought partisan reconciliation was an animating force of Obama’s candidacy, a big reason why he thought he – rather than one of the 306 million other Americans – should be President. I am worried that, amidst a credit crisis, two wars, and a lack of confidence in our nation’s institutions, we have installed as President a man willing to abandon a foundational premise of his candidacy not three months into his tenure.