re: #24 Randall Gross

Very direct and to the point. He’s trying his best to get something done, and the GOP is just looking worse and worse without him actually having to come right out and slam them. Very class, very presidential, and you can bet that the rw blogs are going to go nuts anyway.

He’s giving Republicans every chance to show some sense on this issue. The basic fact is that he was reelected. In the give-and-take of democracy, Republicans have to show some give. The other fact, that Republicans held on to a majority in the House, cannot be the sole ground on which public policy is now made. That’s ludicrous.

The president is also playing his cards with cool precision. No hissy fit here. If House Republicans break the deal by leaving Boehner high and dry, (and Boehner is no RINO; he can’t be cast as a leftist) then the blame will fall squarely on House Republicans. It will be clear to all that these Republicans are willing to play “chicken” with the national economy.

My guess and hope is that Obama is correct that a deal is still genuinely possible and can be reached. All it would take would be a relative handful of Republican defections to the Boehner camp from the loony camp.

Where-ever one stands on the question of whose ideas are best, what has to be clear to all is that neither side is going to get just what it wants, and that somewhere, anywhere, in the middle is better than over the cliff.