Is Obama Being Strategic or Naive?

Pushing for economic stimulus, Obama makes significant alterations to draw support from Republicans -- adding tax cuts economists have said are not going to work, stripping out funds for contraception -- asks that they not adopt the Rush Limbaugh line, and sits down on their home turf for face time. The response? Bohner and Cantor before the meeting preemptively demand that the entire package be opposed.

Anyone who has not lived in a cave for the last eight years knows that the GOP sees compromise as weakness. The minute you try to give them an inch, they demand everything or nothing. They've never bought into post-partisanship. They reflexively oppose anything Democratic whether it would work or not. Their proposals are the same ones that created the mess we're trying to solve. But, of course, they are. Would anyone expect anything different?

It is generally a bad idea to attribute stupid motives to smart people. But you have to wonder what Obama is doing. Seems to be three possibilities:

1) The naive possibility -- He thinks that the some portion of the GOP has read the writing on the wall from the last two elections, expects that they will put country before party, and believes that he can create a truly bipartisan effort to get the country's economy back on track.

2) The earnest possibility -- He thinks it unlikely that some portion of GOP has read the writing on the wall from the last two elections, expects that they will put country before party, but will legitimately do his best to try to "change the tone in Washington" by engaging in good faith attempts at bipartisanship. If they don't come along, he has the votes, but he will do his level best to try to heal the partisan chasm while he does what he knows need to be done.

3) The cynical possibility -- He knows that GOP will never read the writing on the wall from the last two elections, knows that they will not put country before party, and is doing what Israel does with the Palestinians, put up something you know they won't support and then have plausible deniability by saying, "We tried, we have no partner here."

Is he getting played by the Republicans or is he setting them up knowing their knee-jerk reaction is exactly what Rush Limbaugh enunciates -- oppose everything and hope it fails because if it goes through and works then Democrats get the credit and we'd rather see people lose their jobs and homes than concede a political point? Is this a strategic move to marginalize Republicans or is it a good faith, but naive effort?