On January 20th, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States. In his address he stressed the need for the nation to heal the wounds of partisanship and to work together for the common good.Both are admirable goals, but based upon his early actions--the closing of Gitmo and the suspension of the Mexico City Policy(or global gag rule)--there is concern about whether he intends on pursuing the goal of bipartisanship in ernest.

To be sure, it is extremely early in his term--less than a week--but the American people have seen similiar promises go by the waste side.

President Goerge W. Bush pledged similiar cooperation with the opposition at the beginning of his tenure, but that soon fell apart after the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks upon New York, Washington DC, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.The result of Mr. Bush's slide to the right was to create a poisoned atmosphere not only in Washington, but throughout the nation. The country was and is as divided as it was during the heyday of the anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960's.

In order for President Obama to have a chance to succeed, he must transcend the bitter partisan warfare of the Bush Era and create an atmosphere that is conducive to respectful debate over the issues the nation faces.People in a democracy will never agree upon most things--too many different experiences and emphasis on varying values to expect that to happen--but it can be a nation that argues with a tolerance for another persons opinion.

A President can never expect to have the vast majority of the people on his side for very long--see how quickly Mr. Bush's popularity fell in the months after the invasion of Afghanistan--but what he can do is to minimize the vitriol by making the opposition feel as if they have a voice. Nothing aggravates the opposing aisle more than to be shutout of the governance of the nation.

Let's hope President Obama has learned this lesson from the mistakes of the past, because in these troubled times we need a everyone to be on board in order for the ship to be righted.