Reply #16: So the president ought to be better at this. [View All]

[Jakes Progress]

He ought not to telegraph his position before the negotiations even begin. He is making a bad deal. The republicans get what they want. They get what is effectively a permanent tax gift to the richest two percent who have benefitted the most from the bail out, the crisis, and high unemployment. They get to say they lowered taxes. They get to say they stopped Obama from raising taxes. They get to say that Obama raised the deficit. All of that is a bunch of hooey, but if hooey wasn't political capital, no republican would ever be elected.

The irritation is that this administration took an issue that was stone simple, an issue that the public backed in overwhelming numbers, and lost again. It's getting tiresome.