And there is trust created partly in those long days and nights spent shaping consensus.
To make this process credible, the United States should take the lead in trying to shape consensus positions in the three bodies.
First, the UK has been influential in shaping consensus at EU level – on aid and trade for example – and can justly point to its role in the EU as an opportunity to amplify influence.
The fervent courtship is turning the debate on the economic package into a test of whether the Obama White House can put an end to years of distrust between the parties and overcome their recent inability to shape consensus legislation.
I am trying to use my platform not to follow consensus but to shape consensus, and to reveal to people what our current laws are doing in terms of how they're destroying our nation.
Recently the host of the RNC Debate, it also was the venue for the first Purple America Cleveland Civility Summit, where community leaders came together to define core values to better shape consensus on police, racial and community issues.
Many other Americans also failed to see it until newspaper and television analyses shaped their consensus that a serious presidential slip had occurred.
Indeed, the Arizona meeting could be a signal that Mr. McCain is willing to play a major role in shaping bipartisan consensus in the new Senate.
But it can, both by its scale and its example, help give momentum to decisions in these wider forums and to shape a consensus.
The sixth argument against the Theory of Inevitable Compromise is the virtual impossibility in today's polarised America of shaping a consensus.
