Obama was naively hopeful that the Republican Congress would work with him instead of moving the goalposts every time he came up with a possible solution. He even proposed some things that they had earlier agreed to, but changed their minds so he would not "get credit" for it. There is no bipartisanship or statesmanship in that behavior. Furthermore, they would not even approve in real life of some of their earlier "heroes" like Reagan, Eisenhower, or even Nixon, and nevermind Teddy Roosevelt. Those people were far more "liberal" than the current bunch. But you probably knew that but choose to ignore it.

Saul