After listening to Instapundit, Malkin, and “Joe” the “Plumber,” John Cole wonders aloud how this bipartisanship thing can possibly work.
I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years.
Key instigators of his despair were “Joe” the “Plumber” bemoaning the lack of spending and program cuts in the stimulus bill and Instapundit citing Bush’s MBA as evidence of his awesome managerial skills.
It’s the old Prisoner’s Dilemma. If both parties are nice, everybody wins a little. If you’re nice, and the other guy is an ass, he wins big and you lose big. If you’re both asses, you both lose a little, but the same amount. The rational approach is to extend your hand initially, and if the other guy does the same, you both win. If, after that first act of good will, the other guy bonks you on the head, the rational approach is to beat the hell out of him until he extends his hand, and then you do the same.