POTUS organized the community of the GOP House trio of John Boehner, Mike Spence, Eric Cantor on a Baltimore stageset this news cycle, and the result was a jolly good time for those who fancy political melodrama. In this case, it was POTUS vs POTUS.  Here is the puzzle.  Why does POTUS complain to the GOP House that Capitol Hill will not obey his desires re healthcare, energy, education and now the deficit?  The GOP House numbers 176 sad sack and unwanted votes.  Mrs. Pelosi command 255 dominating votes, and this means she can pass whatever she aims for, including this past year everything she wanted: stimulus, cap and trade, healthcare.  There was little sign of any effort by Mrs. Pelosi to deal. Why would she?  The path to the speakership for her was to fight a shut-it-down guerilla campaign against the Bush White House and the Delay/Boehner majority; and eventually the gridlock gave her the power.  POTUS knows this.  Here is another puzzle.  The argument for POTUS is with the Senate -- both the Democratic and the Republican caucus.  When POTUS was in the Senate,  he was a very good partisan when in the minority (2005-07) as well as in the majority (2007-09).  Senator Obama practiced four years of team gridlock against the Bush administration in obedience to his leader, Harry Reid.  I recall specifically how POTUS spoke dismissively of POTUS Bush nominee, John Bolton, when Senator Obama was a very junior senator in the minority on the Foreign Relations Committee; and then Senator Obama voted negative on Bolton as many times as possible to prevent the Bolton nomination to the United Nations from going to the floor of the Senate, where John Bolton would have been confirmed by the Republican majority in 2005.  POTUS Obama, as a senator, was a rejectionist, a negativist, a solid team player in the grinding down of the Bush foreign policy.  It was expedient gamesmanship in 2005, and it was successful in harassing the Bush policy in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and the Koreas.  Now POTUS Obama is in the POTUS Bush chair, facing team gridlock in the House minority -- and in the suddenly not absolutely meaningless Senate minority (40 seats plus Scott Brown).  Where was today's performance last summer and fall while the Democratic leadership constructed the cap and trade bill and the healthcare bills?  Last puzzle.  Is today's Baltimore melodramatic presentation from POTUS about working together or is it about January 19th?