(no subject)

[tagryn]

When I was out in California last month, a friend of mine asked "Why would you ever vote for McCain?" My response was "Because he's actually done the hard work of bipartisanship that Obama talks about doing." In today's Washington Post, columnist David Ignatius looks at Obama's record on bipartisanship and finds it disturbingly thin.

"The authentic Barack Obama? We just don't know. The level of uncertainty is too high," one Democratic senator told me last week. He noted that Obama hasn't been involved in any "transformative battles" where he might anger any of the party's interest groups. "If his voting record in the past is the real Barack Obama, then there isn't going to be any bipartisanship," this senator cautioned.

As I think I've said before, Obama needs to convince me that his brand of bipartisanship isn't just the same old "do it my way, or else" wrapped in a more elegant package. Despite his reputation, McCain actually has a legislative record of working with the other party to achieve results.