Like I say, I miss the old days. My Uncle Bob Keenan served as a Democrat in the Kansas legislature from 1966-72. Everybody was more or less on the same page back then. The politicians in Topeka and Washington had fought side-by-side in World War II.
They were Americans first, Kansans first - Republicans and Democrats second.

My Uncle used to regale me with stories about characters in the legislature. And I would ask: "Was that guy you're talking about a Republican or a Democrat?" And he might sometimes say: "You know, I don't remember."

Likewise, I would run into retired legislators through the years who would talk about Uncle Bob and what a great guy he was, and they would say: "Was he a Democrat or a Republican, I can't remember?" Like Ronald Reagan once said: "After 5 p.m. we are all Democrats, and we are all Republicans."

But those days are over. Obama's failure to fight back almost reminds me of the passive non-resistance used by Jesus, Ghandi, and Dr. King. But as Dr. King once said, "Passive non-resistance only works when the other side has a conscience."

And there is no historical evidence that passive bipartisanship has ever worked in America's two-party system.

Politics today is a winner-take-all bloodbath, and any attempt to extend an olive branch will be taken for weakness, exploited by the opposition in a second. Sometimes Democrats think: "Well, if we are doing the right thing, things will just fall into place." That's just not the case. You have to fight.

The guy who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was in Great Bend many years ago, and I introduced my young sons to him. Great Bend is very proud of the B-29 base that was here, and General Tibbet's visit was impressive. And he said in his speech in Great Bend that he didn't have a second thought about dropping the bomb because "there is no morality in war." I wish things were different, but politics today is basically the same as war in terms of tactics.

And Obama is hampered by a second problem, which is that most white Americans are apprehensive about angry black men. So Obama has to avoid showing anger, or any sense of "losing his temper." As the Gene Hackman character said in Mississippi Burning, "Baseball is the only place where a black man can wave a stick in front of a white man without causing a riot."

Maybe this failure to fight hard, to fight back, is the concession Obama made to soothe white voters in 2008. To elect a black President, it had to be just the right person, and Obama's even-tempered manner and non-partisanship served him well in the election process. I wish America was free of racism, and that Obama didn't have to present a "cool, non-threatening demeanor."

In the same way that Jackie Robinson had to be "just the right black man" to break the color barrier in baseball - a USC grad, even-tempered, never fighting back, never responding to racism - Obama must have given up some of his temper to get where he is. And that's a shame.

I wish things were different. But Obama's passive approach is failing to achieve the results he promised. It's time he puts his dukes up and fights. It's a blessing that he got this Massachusetts wake up call only one year into his presidency. He's got three years left to knock somebody's block off. Because he's not just in the ring for himself, he's in the ring for America.