I’d like to point out one of the things about this play (the original post) that makes me laugh uproariously.

The Republicans leaked the offer.

See, when you negotiate you can be closed or open. The reason for being open is to get the public behind you and ‘force’ the other side to agree. It’s not usually considered good tactics as it makes the other side rather bitter, and in most systems the other side can still stab you in the back later. But I digress.

The reason for closed negotiation is so that both sides can, well, negotiate. They can drop or weaken provisions the public hasn’t seized upon, they can swallow painful points the other side brings, and come to something that’s tolerable by all sides. Not beloved, but tolerable.

Now the Republicans leaked the other side’s position. What this means, basically, is that they think the majority of the public will disagree with the positions.

Think about that. They just lost an election in which Obama mentioned all those points as part of his positions. Yet they appear to still be convinced that “real americans (tm)” will force him to back off the positions.

Apparently the elections didn’t crack the echo chamber, and I’m laughing.

On the other hand I’m also not laughing. Because this means they’re going to act exactly as they did in the preceding four years, which in turn means that for the next two years things aren’t going to get done (mostly). It’s going to be, well, an interesting ride.