“It is definitely going to be vigorous out there,” says Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pittsburgh. “But I can see legislation where there will be comfortable bipartisan support, like the stimulus package and an energy bill.”

Doyle adds that Democrats do not have a monopoly on good ideas and would be foolish not to be inclusive with Republicans.

He thinks the “vigorous” part will come in debates over health-care reform, which has so many moving parts that intra-party fights can be expected on both sides.

Political scientist Bert Rockman wonders how long today’s bipartisan love-fest will last because “Obama is torn between the need to get a buy-in without having sold-out.”

Rockman remembers when many activist Democrats thought Bill Clinton did more selling-out than necessary as president.

Clinton had little choice: Most of his term was spent working with a Newt Gingrich-led, Republican-controlled Congress.

Obama does not face such a circumstance.

“The American tradition is that bipartisanship only lasts a short time unless there is an extraordinary circumstance, such as World War II,” says political scientist Larry Sabato.

Yet even during World War II, politics were suspended just beyond the water’s edge – not domestically. Elections were held on schedule, and debates in Congress were vigorous. That’s why John McCain’s campaign “suspension” at the onset of today’s financial crisis probably will be seen as his “jump the shark” moment, when he lost presidential credibility.

Elections matter, and Obama and a fully-loaded Democratic Congress both won comfortably. Right now, Americans view the economy as a major crisis.

If they perceive that either party is not behaving seriously, or is dragging its feet for political spectacle, then bipartisanship will take a knee – and Americans’ reaction will be felt in the next election.