Bravo Mr. President

by Steve

Sometime in the last five weeks, between the time his senior advisors swore off any more stimulus measures to insist that voters wanted deficit reduction, and Monday, Barack Obama looked political death in the mirror and decided to change course. It doesn't matter who got him to see the light, it doesn't matter who won and who lost the battle inside the White House, and it doesn't matter who gets to say "better late than never." All that matters is that Obama got it right Monday, in both policy and tone.

By finally drawing a line in the sand, Obama set in motion several things. First, the reconciliation between this president and the Democratic base is now moving full speed ahead. Second, the president is putting forward exactly the right policy prescriptions knowing full well they will never be approved by this Congress, which confirms that he'll be running against Congress in 2012. And lastly, this confirms that Obama has done what we argued for around here: set your demands clearly and plan for the super committee to fail, resulting in the automatic cuts and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, thereby solving a great deal of the debt problem at the start of a second term while allowing you to set the agenda on tax reform and entitlements with a new Congress.

I tip my hat to you Mr. President. It's irrelevant that a nobody like me is now willing to come aboard your reelection effort. What really matters is that you re-gained thousands of foot soldiers Monday and forced the debate back onto terms favorable to you.

Well done sir.