This is funny (in the sense of weird/peculiar):
Slapping Republicans with one hand, extending olive branches with the other, President Barack Obama is playing a dangerous political game.
It's not a new one.
And it just might work.
...
As Obama seeks to right his presidency and his agenda amid falling poll numbers and ballot box losses, he and his advisers have concluded that the gloves must come off more often. He intends more tough talk for Republicans in the coming weeks, a senior administration official said.
The idea is to stop allowing Republicans to define the White House through their nearly unanimous opposition to Obama's proposals and to start using them as a foil to better define Democrats, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to more freely describe private White House planning.
...
Obama won't be the first president to engage in this political brinksmanship, portraying himself as a reasonable type who is willing to give while painting the other side as obstructionist and petty.
And, much as voters tell pollsters they're not fooled by the contradiction and love Mr. Nice Guy the best, Election Day results often don't bear that out.
Bolds are mine. Now the question: Why does this article talk about Obama painting the other side as obstructionist when it indeed is exactly that? Just compare the two bits I bolded in the quote.