Ugh, the press is now circling back to the hackneyed RNC talking point about how Obama's not bipartisan. We went through this last winter when the Beltway press crew concocted the completely unique premise that only Democrats were to blame for the lack of bipartisan cooperation. Ironic, no? The definition of bipartisanship is the two political parties working together. But for Obama the press rules have changed. If Republicans uniformly fail to support him, then it's Obama's fault.

The Journal's Jonathan Weisman has an article today that's even worse, because aside from conveniently ignoring new polling data that undercut his premise, and propping up the it's-all-Obama's-fault meme, Weisman spins the tale by claiming as fact that as a candidate last year the Democrat “campaigned last year on a pledge to end the angry partisanship in Washington.” And that Obama “said he would end” “partisan bickering.”

Really? I paid pretty close attention to that campaign and I don't recall Obama every saying flatly that he'd end partisanship in Washington, as Weisman now claims the president did; that Obama guaranteed it. What I remember is Obama pledging to try to end partisanship; a pledge that virtually every major candidate has made for the last several decades. I remember Obama saying he'd make an honest effort to reach out across the isle, which he has done.

But Obama claiming, as fact, that he'd quickly, and irrevocably, change the entrenched culture of Washington, D.C.? I don't remember that claim. And guess what? Weisman doesn't even try to back that up with a 2008 Obama quote to prove the candidate made that boast. My hunch is that if Obama criss-crossed the country announcing he'd end partisan bickering, period, than Weisman could easily find quotes to include. But Weisman did not, and I suspect he can't.

Instead, journalists now prefer to rewrite history. It it sounds better today to suggest Obama made that audacious campaign claim and that he's failed. It also sound better to blame Obama only for the lack of political cooperation, so that's what Weisman does; he never even mentions in his article the fact that the GOP has openly adopted a political strategy of opposing whatever Obama is for. In an article about bipartisanship, what the Republicans do is irrelevant.

Meanwhile, how big of a mess was Weisman's article? Consider the fact that he ignored brand new polling which completely undercuts his claim about Obama being blamed for the missing D.C. cooperation. The latest Pew Research poll finds that just 17 percent of Americans blame Obama for that, compared to a plurality of 29 percent who blame Republicans.

For some reason, that polling data was left out of the Journal article.