I was rummaging through some old notes and came upon this quote from the Great Wise Moustache himself, Tom Friedman:
There is nothing more difficult to fight than an enemy whose only interest is that you fail and who has no interest in building a positive alternative. That kind of enemy can only be overwhelmed and crushed.
It's from his NY Times column of June 10, 2004. Though I no longer have the column, I think it's a fair guess that he was talking about Iraq (perhaps in the context of recommending that we keep the war going for another Friedman Unit).
Now apply that wisdom to Obama vs. the Rethugs. Bipartisanship, anyone?