"We need mental health resources, and that initiative, I hope, will provide a common ground, a point of consensus that will bring us together".
"Gone from the speech was what I'd heard in pretty much every other Obama State of the Union, pressing bipartisan cooperation, finding common ground, pushing points of agreement," he writes.
This common ground gives a point where negotiations can be initiated.
People who can't agree on anything political find common ground on one point: undecided voters are vapid, disengaged and a little bit frightening.
"The Haqqani network is as big a threat to Pakistan as it is to Afghanistan and to us, but we haven't been able to find common ground on that point," he said.
With few exceptions, each chapter follows a similar pattern: a summary of the biological facts followed by a survey of the combatants' common ground and the point of departure taken by one from the other.
Suppose then that the Proposition that Singapore has a unique King is in a conversation's common ground at given point; then a speaker may felicitously utter a sentence such as 'The present King of Singapore is wise,' or 'Singapore's king is sleeping'.
Obama concedes difference, but makes common ground his main point.
A builder talking to doctors may seem to have little common ground, until you point out that both professions have to deal with problems and people, e.g. "You know, we have a lot in common.
"Keeping kids safe is common ground," he said, pointing to district efforts to combat bullying and to new antisuicide efforts.
On Thursday, President Obama has to do more than call Congressional leaders to find "common ground" by acknowledging points of Republican merit and Democratic flexibility.
