Phillip Houghton of Canberra, Australia asks:

Living in Australia and not understanding your system, I don’t see how the Bush administration can share power with the Democrats without this shared power turning around and biting them. To what lengths will Bush’s team have to go to garner Democrats’ support?

Sonia Jarvis responds:

Power sharing is a tricky concept for our system as well. Over the past four decades, American voters have generally voted to split the power of the executive branch and the legislative branch by having one party control the White House and the other control the Senate, while control of the House of Representatives has been more stable until very recently.

President Bush's initial decisions do not appear to be based on an assumption of power sharing, rather it appears that he intends to promote the agenda on which he campaigned such as a large tax cut.

Having said that, I do think there are a handful of issues, like education and Social Security reform and the prescription drug benefit, where he has the opportunity to pick up significant Democratic support depending on the details of his legislative proposals. To date, it would not appear that Mr. Bush believes it is necessary for him to make any concessions to the Democrats that could come back and haunt him with his base of supporters.

Theodore Lowi responds:

All the Republicans really have to do is to make their policy positions clear and to try to persuade a few Democrats in the House and at least ten Democratic Senators to vote their way. Thus, this whole business of bipartisanship is utter silliness, or deviousness, aimed at silencing or co-opting the opposition party. That poses a great risk to the Democrats, since the 2002 election is sooner than they think.

Next question...

1) Is bipartisanship a realistic goal?

2) What will Bush have to do to garner Democrats' support?

3) Is bipartisanship only being discussed because it's currently popular?

4) Won't the real control over the political agenda come with Bush's appointments?

5) Will President Bush face the same political climate as President Clinton?

6) Will the transition in government really change the way the government does business?

The U.S. House of Representatives
The U.S. Senate
The White House