Political sanity returning already? GOP House leader signals willingness to compromise

House Speaker John Boehner has just announced that he is willing to accept higher tax revenue if it comes via tax reform and is part of a package that includes entitlement reform. This is the type of plan we could have had before the election if House Republicans agreed to it.

Hopefully this is the first sign that maybe that "fever" President Barack Obama referred to during the campaign is finally, maybe, kinda sorta breaking.

Let's hope so. 

It should be.

Remember when Sen. Jim DeMint said stopping the Affordable Care Act could be Obama's Waterloo? Remember when Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell said his top political goal was for Obama to be a one-term president? Remember the sit down top Republicans had even before Obama was sworn in, a meeting during which they decided to oppose him at every turn to win back power and get him out of office? I hope they remembered those political tactics last night and understand that they did not work in the long run even though it did in 2010, meaning it's time to try something new.

Yes, Obama has to be an even better president and do more of the backslapping that he did not do during the previous 4 years, among many other things. He has a lot of room to grow as well. But it was true, though, that he had all the incentive to compromise the past 4 years while the GOP had a big incentive to obstruct. That is no longer necessarily true.

Remember when Sen. Jim DeMint said stopping the Affordable Care Act could be Obama's Waterloo? Remember when Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell said his top political goal was for Obama to be a one-term president? Remember the sit down top Republicans had even before Obama was sworn in, a meeting during which they decided to oppose him at every turn to win back power and get him out of office? I hope they remembered those political tactics last night and understand that they did not work in the long run even though it did in 2010, meaning it's time to try something new.

Yes, Obama has to be an even better president and do more of the backslapping that he did not do during the previous 4 years, among many other things. He has a lot of room to grow as well. But it was true, though, that he had all the incentive to compromise the past 4 years while the GOP had a big incentive to obstruct. That is no longer necessarily true.