Obama, Republicans Get Advice and Criticism About Political Gridlock

President Obama and congressional Republicans got advice and criticism Sunday -- sometimes from members of their own parties -- for the partisan gridlock that has stalled action on health care, the economy and other key issues.

The discussion of gridlock and partisanship coincided with release of a CNN/Opinion Research poll that said 81 percent of Americans believe the U.S. system of government is broken, but can be fixed. Fourteen percent said it was not broken and 5 percent said it was broken and could not be fixed.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who often finds himself at ideological odds with fellow Republicans, rapped GOP critics of the economic stimulus package approved last year and also agreed with characterizations of the Republicans as "the party of no."

Schwarzenegger said on ABC's This Week, "I find it interesting that you have a lot of the Republicans running around and pushing back on the stimulus money and saying this doesn't create any new jobs, and then they go out and they do the photo ops and they are posing with the big check and they say, 'Isn't this great? Look ...(at) the kind of money I provide here for the state, and this is great money to create jobs, and this has created 10,000 new jobs and this has created 20,000 new jobs.' And all of these kind of things. It doesn't match up."

(Just across the airwaves on Fox News Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said, "With regard to the stimulus, I think the evidence is pretty clear. You know, Tiger Woods and John Edwards had a better year than the stimulus did.")

Read the transcripts of ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday.

When asked on ABC if the GOP was the "party of no," Schwarzenegger said, "They have the big opposite position. I mean, because first when it come to the party itself, they have to do everything they can in order to win in November."

"They're the party of no, and at the same time, I think that there are a lot of people that are disenchanted and dissatisfied and they're angry and this is why you have the Tea Party and all of those things," Schwarzenegger said. "The Tea Party is not going to go anywhere. I think the Tea Party is all about just an expression of anger and dissatisfaction...I see it in California when people come up to me and say, 'You know I'm angry that you guys don't get along in Sacramento. I'm angry that they're not getting along in Washington. I'm angry that nothing gets done. I'm angry that I'm unemployed. I'm angry that people are losing homes.' "

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat who like Schwarzenegger is term-limited, laid part of the blame for his party's difficulties in defending or pushing ahead its agenda at President Obama's feet.

"Ironically, the best communicator in the history of political campaigning turned out in his first year in office to not communicate very well," Rendell said on ABC. "They let the Republicans take the spin right from the beginning. The stimulus got beat up before one dollar was spent."

Rendell said if he had been president, he would have made a speech to the nation shortly after the inauguration breaking down for the public what was in the stimulus bill and explaining that it wasn't just job creation, but a "safety net" that helped preserve existing jobs.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who backed Obama in 2008, said Obama had probably taken too much on in his first year and underestimated the opposition he would face.

"No great (military) strategist and no great battle plan survives first contact with an enemy," Powell said on CBS' Face the Nation. "And no great political campaign survives first contact with trying to govern in Washington D.C. So he has run into difficulty. But I think he has done quite a few things well to stabilize the situation. But I'm afraid he put too much on the plate for the American people to absorb at this time."

"It's nice to say, 'Let's be bipartisan,' " Powell added. "But we're a partisan nation. We were raised as a partisan nation. The only bipartisanship you ever see is when they finally sign a bill and everybody says, 'Gee, isn't that wonderful.' And I don't think he expected such a strong attack and resistance from the Republican Party. But that's what he got. And I don't think that they have yet figured out how to resolve these serious differences that exist between both sides or two sides of the political spectrum."

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a Democrat who cited the level of partisanship in Congress as a factor in his decision last week not to seek re-election, said on CNN's State of the Union, "I believe the president is making a genuine effort to try and reach out and forge bipartisan consensus, but he needs some cooperation from the Congress, and both parties are to blame, frankly."

"On the Republican side, they have some short-term tactical political advantages here that they are just not willing to let go of, even to address the public's business," Bayh said. "On our side, we have got some folks, who -- well-intended people, they have fervent beliefs -- but they are not willing to settle for half a loaf when the alternative is none. They are too driven by ideology. They need to be a little more pragmatic."