Crush Them Like Grapes

The Nation has a good op/ed about the republicans refusing to be bipartisan. It is a pretty good read, worth reading in its entirety. But I want to highlight a quote from Obama in its final graph.

Team Obama is already recalibrating, naturally. Rahm Emanuel recently noted that an "insatiable appetite" for bipartisanship made Obama's team "get ahead" of itself. The President, for his part, clarified that bipartisan outreach does not make him a "interview back in 2007, in a clip which the blogger Jed Lewison recently flagged: I don't like people trying to take advantage of that [outreach]. This is why actually if you watch my political interactions. I am always best as a counter-puncher. You know, somebody comes at me I will knock them out. If not, I will try to understand their point of view and that actually serves me well. I give people the benefit of the doubt; I try to understand their point of view -- if I perceive that they try to take advantage of that then I will crush them.

Like grapes, I say!