To the winners...

This sounds about right:

“We just have a difference here, and I’m president,” Mr. Obama said to [Virginia republican representative Eric] Cantor, according to Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, who was at the meeting.

Mr. Emanuel said that Mr. Obama was being lighthearted and that lawmakers of both parties had laughed.

Mr. Cantor, in an interview later, had a similar recollection. He said the president had told him, “You’re correct, there’s a philosophical difference, but I won, so we’re going to prevail on that.”

“He was very straightforward,” Mr. Cantor added. “There was no disrespect, but it was very matter-of-fact.”

Never mind the fact that Cantor is a caricature of a politician that does not deserve to be taken seriously. This is the attitude that the White House needs to be taking. You can give ideas, we will listen, we will consider them, but we won every major election contest, and we're ultimately going to decide how this works. As Steve Benen said, the republicans are a minority party, and they got us into this mess, so they shouldn't be treated as equal partners.