Big problems require big solutions, quick. If bipartisan cooperation in major policy changes is needed, then so be it. Democrats will reach across the aisle and...get sucker punched!

This could become a classic Karpian maneuver. Remember Walter Karp? He was a journalist with Harper's and wrote a number of books on US politics, including "The Politics of War", "Indispensable Enemies" and "Liberty Under Siege".

One of Karp's recurrent themes is that the two parties of our political system will always rush together to crush any hint of insurgent domestic reform.

Think about it. Just a few years ago we had people - even Teamsters and turtles - marching in the streets to advocate for fair trade and protest corporate control. Nobody's marching now. They acquiesce to "Free Speech Zones" or are violently arrested. Authorities increasingly interdict organizations of dissent before they have a chance to express their political views. Liberty Under Siege.

We now live under The Politics of War (without end), a war concocted from phony evidence to create yet another epoch of Indispensable Enemies. Obviously, any true patriot will happily sacrifice a few superfluous liberties to keep the enemy in check.

Now, suddenly, on the eve of a presidential election, when a candidate has sparked the enthusiasm of America's young with the promise of change, we face yet another impending threat: Years of monetarist policies and market deregulation have culminated in a vast financial crisis, one that threatens the very foundation of our economy - according to our President.

Despite having presided over the so-called free market policy changes that led to the crisis, this president now asserts that immediate control economy measures are required to prevent catastrophe. He summons Democrats to join him in a trillion dollar government intrusion into the market.

Democrats respond with patriotic bipartisan cooperation, working diligently to accommodate the president's initiative to "save the world". Ironically, it's the the president's own party that balks, objecting to more big government control, socialized risk and privatized profit.

After systematically seizing each plank of the Democratic platform, while simultaneously preserving their own, Republicans have in one master stroke underscored that Democrats are actually afraid of change, that they support more big government and will prop up the fat cats, spending billions and billions if necessary, even though it irretrievably undermines their ability to fulfill their promises in health care and education - that Democrats are obviously liars.

Meanwhile, McCain confidently produces sound bite after sound bite of easy "straight talk" while Obama stammers through excuse after excuse of tortuous intellectual rationalization. That's the best "bipartisan cooperation" Republicans could hope for.

For Obama, it's the best possible strategy for throwing away his chances. Democrats are stupid to reach across the aisle and try cooperating with the folks that are circulating photoshopped pictures of Obama shining Sarah Palin's shoes. Democrats are dumb to take the heat for years of Republican looting. Obama is crazy to step into compromises that force him into the indignity of explanation.

Perhaps - at the risk of sounding peculiar - it's time to call a spade a spade. Obama is uniquely qualified to represent the underprivileged and disenfranchised. He has suffered the disadvantage of color - yet been able to succeed in his aims. He has worked in the street with the folks left behind by Republican policies. It might be time for Democrats to just say "No", to let the Republican's chips fall where they may, for Obama to stick to straight talk and his vision of reform that has so enthused voters during his campaign.

Obama might do better being a patriot, not against another cooked up crisis but for the people who will benefit from the reforms he has already outlined. It may be that becoming president of a crashed economy is unappealing, but becoming a president unable to perform on his most fundamental campaign promises could be worse.

Obama's Phoenix vision for this country may have a better chance of springing from the ashes of this financial meltdown.