And the rolling appeasement of Iran's mullahs that was on display in the long answer to the first presser's second question will either bring about detente and an abandonment of Iran's nuclear ambitions, or it won't. The GOP should work to refine and convey its core message on why both at home and abroad it is obliged to dissent from the new president's sharp break with the past 28 years of American economic life and from a policy of opposition to the mullahs that, whenever departed from over the same period --whether by Republican or Democratic presidents-- has only produced strategic set-backs and more terrorism from the mullahs.
If Secretary Geithner and his team come forward with plans to shore up various financial institutions or the housing sector and those plans make sense, the GOP should support them. But even if that happens, those brief moments of cooperation on essentially technical agreements on how to restore confidence in markets won't undo what has just happened. The MSM is only slowly picking up on the key lesson of the first big act of the Obama years: There isn't a shred of bipartisanship in the new Administration that isn't purely rhetorical or theatrical. Those who put great stock in those declarations should be embarrassed. He's from Chicago. That's not how he learned to play and dominate the game.