Details vary, but basically this debate is between those who think that the only way to achieve better things is to aim for one more cookie crumb, and those who think it is better to aim for more. Those who support the former push it as smart strategy even though one more cookie crumb is really want they want.
Think what you want about Obama generally, but it is hard to defend his "if I come to Republicans with a reasonable compromise they will be so impressed by how reasonable it is that they will have to support it." This worked precisely zero times and I am not sure why anyone would think this group of Republicans (not your father's Republican party! Joe Biden keeps saying) is more receptive to this than the early groups.
And the voters who matter - swing and irregular ones - don't reward "reasonableness" no matter how often they tell pollsters it's something they value.
