President Obama goes to Baltimore today, where among his activities on his taking-it-to-the-streets post-SOTU tour is to deliver remarks on a jobs tax credit, and then he goes to the GOP House Issues Conference, where he will spend some quality time with John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and presumably local Congressmembers like Bill Young and Adam Putnam.
Although there are serious questions — especially from Congressional Democrats — about what exactly Obama thinks he'll accomplish in meeting with the Party of No, the fact of the matter is, it's good politics.
Rightly or wrongly, the partisan divide that Obama campaigned against in 2007-2008 has not gone away, and arguably is even worse than when George W. Bush left the scene. Is it Obama's fault? It depends on where you stand, but the point is is that as he tries to regenerate his image in year 2 of his administration, the president clearly is making overtures to Republicans (i.e., lots of talk on tax cuts and energy sources that the GOP likes).
More on Obama's visit and a photo gallery of Obama, Biden, questioners and protesters after the break.
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2010.