MAYBE, NOW, THEY WILL COMPROMISE!

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer, and legislator, has superior opportunity of being a good man.
Abraham Lincoln

 "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Mitch McConnell, Republican Minority Leader of the Senate, 2010  

“If he’s willing to meet us halfway on some of the biggest issues, it’s not inappropriate for us to do business with him.”
Mitch McConnel -  Republican Minority Leader of the Senate 2012

"I don't like how much Obama has done to try to compromise with the other side. But I can see how those apparently quixotic efforts are paying off now."

But just as they did in Philadelphia when they were writing the constitution, sooner or later, you've got to compromise. You've got to start making the compromises that arrive at a consensus and move the country forward.
Colin Powell

WASHINGTON — One day after a bruising, mixed-verdict election, President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner both pledged Wednesday to seek a compromise to avert looming spending cuts and tax increases that threaten to plunge the economy back into recession.

Added Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.: "Of course" an agreement is possible.

While all three men spoke in general terms, Boehner stressed that Republicans would be willing to accept higher tax revenue under the right conditions as part of a more sweeping attempt to reduce deficits and restore the economy to full health.

While the impending "fiscal cliff" dominates the postelection agenda, the president and Republicans have other concerns, too.

One major topic for GOP discussion: the changing face of America.

"We've got to deal with the issue of immigration through good policy. What is the right policy if we want economic growth in America as it relates to immigration?" said former Republican Party Chairman Haley Barbour. Obama drew support from about 70 percent of all Hispanics. That far outpaced Romney, who said during the Republican primaries that illegal immigrants should self-deport, then spent the general election campaign trying to move toward the political middle on the issue.

President Obama - The Negotiator, the compromiser - His record

President Obama was willing to negotiate, find middle ground, during the first half of his administration. His biggest piece of legislation is the best example. He started his presidency with many efforts to compromise on many fronts.

President Obama was not, originally, a supporter of the Republican mandatory health insurance, designed by Republican groups, such as the Heritage Foundation, and carried in the legislative bodies by Republican leaders of the time, such as Newt Gringrich, and instituted, statewide, by Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. President Obama originally, along with Bill and Hillary Clinton, preferred a single payer health care system. President Obama compromised to the Republican designed plan, recognizing that his single payer system would not get support in the House and Senate. President Obama convinced many Democrats to join his efforts. It was a huge change for many Democratic legislators - a huge compromise. Once President Obama adopted the Republican style of health care legislation that mandates health insurance, as we do with automobile insurance, Republicans backed off, refused any compromise to their own plan and later accused President Obama of jambing his mandatory health care down their throats! It has been so hypocritical on the part of the Republican Party and Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney even, initially, praised President Obama for his plan to copy Mitt's plan and go nation wide. He even argued in favor of the national adoption in his book but had that language removed from 2nd and 3rd editions. President Obama was working with them, on their plan but they turned tail, and ran the other way, when it appeared that he would get credit for getting a nation wide health insurance plan adopted.