Obama's outreach to the GOP: Why hasn't it worked before?

But now that he is trying harder — on Tuesday Mr. Obama makes the first of four visits to the Capitol over three consecutive days — Democrats say that his effort will put to the test, or at least expose, what they call the biggest factor of all: Republicans’ resistance to what overtures Mr. Obama does make, whether social or legislative, given the political danger of appearing too close to a president so unpopular with the conservative base.

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“I find it sort of hard to stomach the criticism that he has not been reaching out to Republicans,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a Democrat close to the White House…

Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma had a scheduling conflict that evening, but he has been one of the few Republicans in Congress to have an open channel to the president, a relationship that began when Mr. Obama was a senator. Mr. Coburn, in an interview recently but before the president’s latest outreach, said that such legislative engagement was counter to Mr. Obama’s “personality type.”

“What he doesn’t realize is if he tried a different style, he’d get a whole lot more cooperation,” Mr. Coburn said, adding: “He’s really a neat guy. People don’t know that about him.”

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