Compromise not ideology needed for grand bargain

In spite of the carping from Canadian economic writers like Terrence Corcoran, trumping both the narrowness of the Obama victory, and the uber-value, in his small mind, of the "individualism" that is the strength of the U.S. economy, Obama is now positioned to lead his country toward the big deal that was not reached in the summer of 2011 with House Speaker Boehner, including increased revenue from the wealthy in a balanced approach, the permanent implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act, a jobs programs that addresses the eroding infrastructure (witness the impact of hurricane Sandy) and also begins to take the climate change, global warming issue seriously.
Cocoran may not have grandchildren for whom he is concerned about the state of the world environment, but many others of us do and are.
Doctrinaire politicians, like doctrinaire economists, do not bend to the realities of the situation. The impact of such rigidity is not a healthy sign for them personally or for the issues they articulate and represent.
The United States, and the world leaders generally, have to move to increased collaboration, increased awareness of the needs of 'the other' and increased capacity to negotiate in good faith, for the solutions that serve the best interests, nationally of their people, and globally, for the people on the planet.
To fail to address both the economy and the environment, albeit without an apocalyptic heroism, would be to fail to grasp both the opportunity of the moment and the challenge of leadership, in a very complex universe, where no ideology, neither right nor left, can serve all purposes or all people.
And the signs of the future, the president having already signalled a capacity and a willingness to "work with" his political opponents, (something they have so far been unwilling and unable to provide in reciprocity) will have to come from the Republican Party, including the Tea Party representatives, whose prayer book seems to have been both written and read by people like Corcoran, to his and their detriment.