The following Obama quotation is from an interview with several syndicated columnists recently. In it he clearly and concisely describes his vision of post partisanship. -I made every effort to reach out to Republicans early to get their input and to get they buy-in. I think that there were some senators and House members who have a sincere philosophical difference with the idea of any government role in boosting demand in the economy. They don’t believe in Keynes and they’re still fighting FDR. And no matter what we did, said, whatever the process was, they just don’t agree that this is the best prescription. And I think we can disagree without being disagreeable on that front.What the president makes clear here is that bi or post partisanship is not about splitting the ideological difference. It is about pursuing the agenda that got him elected without ignoring or attacking Republicans. It's about giving them an opportunity to contribute to his agenda, not an opportunity to enact a Republican agenda. Obama is offering Republicans a chance to help him recognize "unintended consequences" of liberal policy prescriptions in order to avoid them. He is essentially asking them to play the role of loyal opposition, rather than that of obstructionist.
The difficulty is that his vision of post-partisanship is daily distorted by folks on both sides; conservative and extreme liberal ideologues have an interest (a genuine and legitimate ideological interest by the way) in resting control of public opinion from Obama.
By speaking much more often and much more substantively to the press about the substance of policy, Obama is effectively blunting his critics' efforts. It is very hard to distort a president's objectives and perspective when that perspective is regularly explained and discussed with the public by the president himself, rather than "administration officials."