Barely a day after we heard the happy news that Osama bin Laden took an American bullet to the head, President Obama hosted both parties’ leadership at an event called “Together As An American Family: A Bipartisan Congressional Dinner at the White House.” “Last night,” the president proclaimed, “we experienced the same sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11. … Tonight it is my fervent hope that we can harness some of that unity and some of that pride to confront the many challenges we still face.”
Call me a cynic (I won’t complain), but I found myself mentally translating Obama’s remarks: “and so, let’s approach our upcoming budget battles in the spirit that prevailed during those five minutes when everyone thought I was an awesome, supercompetent president.” Rare indeed is the call for “national unity” that doesn’t reduce to “Let’s all come together — on my terms.”
