Patriot Update

If that was an olive branch, we’d hate to see the bludgeon. We’re referring to President Obama’s appearance on Friday in the White House East Room, his first public remarks since his re-election Tuesday. If the President wanted to send a gesture of magnanimity in victory, this wasn’t it.

Though the campaign is over, the event was staged like a campaign event, complete with a multi-ethnic backdrop for the cameras, a cheering crowd and no media questions. The President said he is “open to compromise” and isn’t “wedded to every detail” of his budget proposals. He invited Congressional leaders of both parties to the White House to talk next week.

But that was about the extent of his bipartisan outreach. Most of the speech repeated what he was saying in Ohio two weeks ago. And on the vexed question of taxes, the central dispute in the debate over the looming 2013 fiscal cliff, Mr. Obama said he will insist that taxes go up on anyone who makes more than $250,000 a year.