“It seems quite remarkable — maybe unprecedented — to have the president of the United States out on the stump regularly engaging the minority leader of the House and calling him out by name, even traveling to Cleveland for the express purpose of rebutting an economic speech the minority leader gave there two weeks earlier,” added a senior Boehner aide in an e-mail. “No doubt they believe (hope) they can demonize Boehner by doing so.”

Boehner and Obama had brushes with one another twice in the past year – in both cases Obama came across as dominating the conversation and lecturing Republicans. At a House Republican retreat in Baltimore in January, Obama pushed back on GOP members who pressed the president with questions at a televised event. And in a marathon C-SPAN negotiating session on health care earlier this year, Obama brushed off Republican points, angering Republicans who felt like they were being lectured to rather than negotiated with…

Part of the problem in forming a relationship was timing. Obama came to Capitol Hill in 2005 following his victory in the Illinois Senate race. Obama was already a political rock star by then, but as a junior senator, he had no interaction with Boehner. By early 2006, Obama was already on the road running for president, while Boehner was just getting used to his role as minority leader.