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 With Washington embarked on another of its oxymoronic shutdowns, everyone is giving it in the neck to the Republicans. So maybe someone should give it to Barack Obama in the knees. He's the president. He wanted this job and must bear some responsibility for what has become of politics in the nation's capital. Which is to say, the obliteration of politics. 
 
 By choice and disposition, Mr. Obama does not engage in the horse-trading and negotiation that defines Washington's political life. He passed a national entitlement, the Affordable Care Act, without securing any votes by the nation's other party. Readers of ...
– Washington is embroiled in another of its "oxymoronic showdowns" and everyone is blaming Republicans. But Daniel Henninger at the Wall Street Journal thinks Barack Obama "must bear some responsibility for what has become of politics in the nation's capital. Which is to say, the obliteration of politics." Obama has simply refused to engage in the kind of political horse-trading DC was built on. "But there are consequences to conducting an anti-political presidency, and those consequences are on view now." For politicians, politicking is oxygen. "If they can't do politics, they start to hyperventilate. They do crazy things. Right now, Republicans are starting to look like a lab experiment involving gerbils." Democrats will protest that Obama couldn't "do business with the Barnum & Bailey Republicans." But the country was divided during Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill's legendary partnership, too. "What counterpart has Barack Obama produced? Ted Cruz." Click for the full column.