Originally Posted by kane

It is a gamble that the republicans played. The minute Obama took office they became the party of no. They said no to pretty much everything he did in an effort to make him fail so that they could take back the white house. The problem is since they took power of the house earlier this year they have still done nothing but but tell him no and while they ran on the mantra of "jobs, jobs, jobs," they have done nothing to help create jobs. So while they were effective in making Obama look bad, the problem was they failed to offer any real alternative and now they have no real viable candidate to run against him. Suddenly it is starting to look like Obama might be able to play the republican "No" stance against them.

Add into the mix, like you say, if the republicans actually pass some of his bills and they help make things better it is a sure fire loss for them so now they have dug themselves into a whole that they can't get out of.