Barack Obama won the presidency under the persona of healer. He promised to unify a divided nation and said how he would do this.

He'd put ideology aside and solve problems. And he'd bring new open, bipartisan governing to Washington, devoid of special interests.

Now, six months into this presidency we have exactly the opposite.

Rather than temperatures dropping, they have steadily risen to their current fever pitch.

Rather than becoming more unified, we've never been more divided.

According to the Pew Research Center, the gap between approval rates for the president from Democrats (85 percent) and Republicans (19 percent) is now 66 points. For George W. Bush at about the same time in his presidency, this gap was 51 points. For Bill Clinton it was 45, George H.W. Bush 38, Reagan 46, Carter 25, and Nixon 29.

It's not just Republicans. The gap between the president's approval from Democrats and from independents has expanded from 25 points last February to 37 points today.

And the new open, bipartisan approach to governing?

Listen to remarks (posted on You Tube) by Rep. Tom Price, a Republican from Georgia, to Democratic committee chairman George Miller, during mark-up several weeks ago of the health care bill. Continued...