On Obama's wooing of the GOP

I watched the interview with Obama today prior to the SB and listened to him talking about winning GOP support for his "stimulus" bill in the Senate. I use the scare quotes because I'm not a Keynesian and I don't believe the bloated $800 billion bill is going to stimulate anything other than the blood pressure of sane people everywhere. Ever onward. According to this article:

In the first test of Obama's vow to drain the bile from Washington politics and govern without the bitterness of the last two decades, the president appealed to Republicans to get behind his massive economic stimulus package. The Democratic president plied Republican leaders with cocktails, sent out invites to a White House Super Bowl party and even made a rare presidential foray to Congress to woo the other side.

Look, the sentiment is all well and good, but it's very disingenuous. The lack of GOP support for this bill has nothing to do with partisan politics, Rush Limbaugh's influence on the GOP, or the price of tea in China and Obama knows it. He can throw all the please vote for my bill parties he wants and it won't make a lick of difference because at the heart of the matter, the two sides just disagree on the best course of action and it happens to be a case where there isn't a lot of room for compromise. One can't be a disciple of both Friedman and Keynes and one bill can't make followers of both happy.

The bill will go long party lines again in the Senate except that a few RINOs and DINOs may cross party lines, but I doubt it. Look for both Reid and McConnell to lean very hard on their troops not to break ranks.

I expect that in addition to the ideological divide, the GOP is looking to cement its position as the Opposition Party. It could be a significant blow to Obama's image as a uniter if he gets no GOP support for this major piece of legislation.