Media Matters brings us Village Wisdon at its most vacuous.
But at least Halperin's painfully naive closing provides an unintended chuckle:
Obama needs to conduct some sort of face-to-face intervention with amenable senior Republican legislators, to convince them that it is possible to make a deal in one or two important areas without agreeing on every issue or laying down their arms for the next election. He needs to remind his adversaries that the purpose of government, ultimately, is to improve the lives of the American people, that its leaders - whether in the majority or the minority - shouldn't want to be part of a system that inspires so little faith. And that, friends or not, the only way to build back the trust of the American people is to start to trust each other, if only a little bit.
OMG, why didn't the White House think of this?! According to Halperin, all Obama has to do is ask some "amenable" GOP leaders for their cooperation. Obama just needs to appeal to their sense of duty and responsibility.
Too bad life--or governing--in the real world isn't as simple as it is in the Village. But you have to wonder where Halperin has been for the last year. Even for a Villager, it's hard to believe his bubble is so impenetrable that he's never heard of the filibuster.