This week, President Obama dined with Congressional Republicans to wheel-and-deal on policy and budget priorities. Are Republicans getting served? Or vice versa? President Obama has “harkened back to an older kind of politics,” The Nation’s John Nichols says, “and that is where strong presidents, who have a mandate—and this president does have an electoral mandate—reach around the leadership of the opposition party into its ranks.” Nichols joins The Ed Show to debate the nuts and bolts of the partisan squabble.

—James Cersonsky

Is it possible to change a broken system from within? Katrina vanden Heuvel analyzes the Democrats’ new mobilization plan.