On the night of Barack Obama’s inauguration nearly four years ago, more than a dozen Republican lawmakers met privately to map a strategy on how they would deal with the new president. The consensus was that they would stonewall him at every turn.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy was quoted as saying:  ”We’ve gotta challenge them [Obama and the Democrats] on every single bill.”

GOP politicians were encouraged to mount “unyielding opposition” to every proposal emanating from the White House.

Jamelle Bouie of The American Prospect characterized the strategy thusly:

In other words, there was nothing President Obama could have done to build common ground ...

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