[[[Riginslinger :
"She comes across as totally dismissive of the opposing party..."

         That's because the opposing party continues to nominate weak candidates, so it's hard to take them seriously.]]]
By your take, then, the Republicans should NOT be talking about putting politics aside and "working across the aisle."    If your own party is the only one with candidates worth taking seriously, why should you not be ignoring the opposing party altogether.

Palin and McCain keep making big noises about "bipartisanship," "working across the aisle," and getting beyond political divisiveness -- all the while ridiculing and condemning the entire Democratic party (except for Joe Lieberman) as not having any policies or candidates with any merit.

I'm not sure "bipartisanship" is such a good thing in cases where one party or another is advocating policies that would be harmful to our country and the world.   Personally, I think it's time for the pendulum to swing way back away from the neocon policies of Reagan, Bush 41, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush 43, McCain, etc.   But I do think the Democratic leadership in Congress and Obama and Biden have shown willingness to compromise and work together with the Republicans -- a lot more than I would advocate, on some issues, e.g., the bailout bill. It hasn't been the Democrats in the Senate who've done record numbers of filibusters when they've been in the minority during the past 30 years.