They had Reid as attack dog, and Obama above it all lecturing to us ill behaving children. Pelosi pretty much stayed out of it except to repeat over and over ‘we are ready to open government was soon as Bohner lets us’
In contrast we had a fractured GOP that had no plan, no one really leading and no consistent messaging.
The end result is not really a surprise to many.
The ‘Obama wont compromise’ line was good sounding and showed promise, but once many in the GOP were seen as going to the WH for negotiations that line of attack was nullified.
Resulted in surrender negotiations.