How about aYes to jobs?

After aggravating Republicans with a defiant State of the Union address, President Barack Obama announced that he’s eager to work with the GOP—“to get to yes,” as he put it.

“The answer can’t just be ‘no,’” he told a group of students in Kansas. “I don’t mind hearing no to some things, but it can’t be no to everything; at some point, you got to say yes to something.”

The Senate neatly complied last week. It got to yes on the job-generating Keystone XL pipeline. Democrats avoided all manner of tough votes when they controlled the Senate. Getting to yes on Keystone was a long, messy, laborious process as the Senate debated many amendments.

But the Senate approved the measure to speed up construction of the Keystone pipeline. The vote was 62-36, with nine Democrats in favor.

The Senate said yes. The president says no. He says he’ll veto the measure.

Obama has to find a way to get on board with this. Keystone is likely to be just one of several job-generating measures the GOP will send his way.

There is another course for Obama and Republicans to find some agreement and create jobs. The timing is ideal for long-overdue free trade deals with Asia and Europe.

The GOP traditionally supports such deals. The president’s party will be tougher to deliver—but that’s a challenge for him.

At the same time, America’s economy is on a roll. The dollar is strong, which makes products imported into this country less costly for Americans to buy. Companies in Asia and Europe are drooling over the prospect of expanding their trade with the U.S.—which puts America in a strong negotiating position.

Obama acknowledges the skeptics. “But 95 percent of the world’s customers live outside our borders,” he said in the State of the Union, “and we can’t close ourselves off from those opportunities.” He’s right. Now he needs to get his party to “yes.”