From the 23 January 2013 edition of CBS This Morning:
CHARLIE ROSE: ...You wrote a piece in which you said the President has decided that accommodations didn't work, and that his only remaining option is to pulverize. Some conservatives have jumped back at you. So, what do you say to the criticism that they're making?...
JOHN DICKERSON: ...They thought I was giving the President my personal advice, and that's also – there was some pretty aggressive language in the piece. I wasn't trying to give advice. I was trying to highlight, in a very stark way, what seems like an impossible-to-avoid conclusion about this second term.
We know the President wants to be transformational and not just bounce along in his second term. We also know he doesn't have much time before he's a lame duck. He's picked a controversial agenda for a second term; and, most important, he's decided, essentially, to write off trying to cajole and schmooz the House GOP....
So, given all of those facts, what does an ambitious President try to do?..and the only solution I could come up with is that he gets aggressive. That seems to be the only option. I wrote this before the inauguration. Now, he's given a speech that suggests that's exactly what he's going to do.