Bipartisanship remains elusive

President Obama's first State of the Union address Wednesday night was a "do over." Fresh from the devastating Senate race loss in Massachusetts last week, Obama and team realize they must shift course. Part of that was reiterating the word "bipartisanship" several times. Obama even offered to meet with Republicans.

At the same time, Obama couldn't resist the urge to remind his audience that his predecessor took office with a budget surplus and left him a huge deficit. When the cameras quickly turned to John McCain, you could clearly see him lean over to a colleague and say in an exhausted manner, "Blame Bush." Mr. President, reminding everyone that George W. Bush wasn't the best at math won't help your push for bipartisanship.

This is not to say that this is all Obama's fault. From the day Obama took office, Republicans in Congress have rebuked him at every turn. Sure, they have genuine policy differences with him, but it's no secret that the GOP hierarchy would rather Obama fail with the hope of re-taking the White House in three years. That's politics, but it's also turning off Americans and quickly growing the number of people who call themselves Independents. Meanwhile, the country's problems grow and solutions remain elusive. Republicans might be happy that healthcare reform has been derailed, but medical attention is still expensive and is bankrupting families and governments alike.

Leadership could mean getting party leaders from both sides behind closed doors and figuring a way to give both parties a little of what they want. Maybe Democrats would give up anti-business labor ideas and Republicans could agree to support some limited but meaningful ways to reduce healthcare costs. Both parties might be pleasantly surprised at how a little "win-win" bipartisanship would be received by most Americans. Will it happen? I doubt it.