Community organising involves a lot of mediation and I can see where you are coming from on this.  However his problem is that GOPers, wingnuts, tea partiers, (and militarists generally )see mediation as being for wimps - as a sign of weakness rather than of the moral strength it actually represents.  These guys have to be DEFEATED before they will even agree to talk in a language that meets others half way.  The question is whether Obama has the wit, will, and strenght of character to really take the battle to the enemy when the chips are down and there is no other way.

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for mediation and have spent a lot of my life doing it in various ways - but there are times when mediation doesn't work: when the other guys don't want to settle because they think they can have it all their own way and see no reason to settle for the half way solutions mediation often results in.

For mediation to work, the protagonists actually have to recognise each other as having a legitimate case to argue - even if, and indeed especially if, they disagree strongly with each other.  The problem Obama faces is that the wingnuts don't realise they are really the mirror image of the commies, terrorists, gays, atheists and liberals they so fear and despise.  Their goal is to conquer, not compromise; and in that context mediation simply isn't possible.

Index of Frank's Diaries