I have this theory about President Obama. All the negotiations, inclusion and “meeting half way” with the whacked out psychos who run the GOP are based on his noble belief that the executive branch is a co-equal branch of government with the legislative and judicial branches.
He is going out of his way to try and reset the balance envisioned by the founders and expressed in the set of norms and traditions which accrued over 200 years. Bush brutally raped those traditions and the founders vision for the executive, and Obama is trying to unrape them. If I’m right, it is a virtuous, but completely fucked and misguided waste of a presidency.
For one thing, the Republicans will always obscenely abuse executive powers, so this Obama reset will only apply to Democratic Presidents. For another, he doesn’t get that modern Republicans are insurrectionist and terrorists who are completely unencumbered by notions of honor.