The lamest promise in President Obama’s SOTU speech? Bipartisanship.

I’ve never been a huge fan of bipartisanship. We already have too few political parties in the US.

With only two big, clunky parties left — the Republican and the Democratic — we need them to offer clear choices, stark debate, a range of policy choices.

President Barack Obama keeps trying to close the gap, suggesting that the tone of Washington is too rancorous, too vitriolic.

Nonsense. There was a time when lawmakers in the Capital beat each other with cudgels and fought duels.

If the current crop of Democrats and Republicans can’t handle a little feistiness, they should go home.

Mr. Obama already has an unwieldy range of opinions within his own party. He should herd his crew together as best he can and get as much done as he can.

To that end, he should encourage Democrats in the Senate to set aside the filibuster rules that are stifling even the most basic policy debates and decisions.

Republicans, too, should make it clear that the filibuster, requiring a 60-vote majority, has no place in the Senate or in any representative body.

Voters don’t need Mr. Obama to straddle the fence.

If we don’t like the Democratic agenda, or their record of progress, Americans will have a clear choice in 2010 and again in 2012.

On this score, I think the GOP has been much more straightforward and much more honest.

They’ve said bluntly and unequivocally that they reject the President’s plans for the country and hope to offer a new path. They have shown exactly zero interest in bipartisanship.

In this, if in nothing else, the President should follow their lead.