Rep. Perriello most certainly should be walking away with his head held high, “very proud of what we did, and with a lot of respect even from those who disagreed with us in the district.” Other highlights from the NewsHour interview:
*”People had hoped perhaps for too much with us coming into power.”
*”At the end of the day, jobs trumps everything else.”
*We prevented an economic depression, but could have done “something bolder, to really reinvent America’s competitive advantage…we didn’t do that”…instead went with a “much tamer stimulus.”
*Virginia is “certainly not” out of Obama’s reach for 2012.
*”This [election] was not a mandate for Republicans.”
*People hoped for “an era of post-partisanship”, what they’re getting “is at best bipartisanship, and there’s a difference”
*”This tax deal, unfortunately, is an example of bipartisanship; let’s take the goodies from one side and add them to the goodies from the other side…post-partisanship says ‘what solves the problem’?”
*”I was really shocked by the way the Republicans acted…when your country’s on the verge of a crisis…the response from Republicans was, ‘hey if this works, you’re gonna get the credit; if it doesn’t work, we don’t want any part of it, that’s not statesmanship, that’s not engaging with the problems of our country…saw that in this campaign as well.”
*”We have real structural problems in our democracy right now.”
*Stimulus plan was supported by Chamber of Commerce, approach to energy was developed by first President Bush and supported by John McCain, health care proposal supported by Mitt Romney and Bob Dole’s plan back in the day; this was an attempt to actually get beyond the old partisan divisions.
*”It helps to have politicians who don’t mind losing elections.”
*”I am not optimistic about the next 2 years in terms of the 2 sides working together; I certainly hope people will do some soul-searching.”
*”I’m interested in serving…the next 2 years are incredibly important.”
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