THE MISTAKEN NOTION OF THE UR AS AN IDEOLOGICAL LIBERAL...:

Debt talks hinge on evolved Obama-Boehner relationship (John Dickerson, 7/08/11, CBS News)

Like men of a bygone era, Obama and Boehner are now holding secret meetings in the White House. On Sunday the two met as a part of a mini-breakthrough in talks over raising the debt ceiling. In private the president says that Boehner reminds him of the Republicans he worked with in Springfield as a state legislator, the kind of Republicans he played poker with on Wednesday nights.

There's a long way to go before a deal on the debt limit. But if it happens, the story of how Obama and Boehner learned to deal with each other will be at the heart of it. In the Saturday-serial narrative of this drama, the stage of gloom and doom has lifted momentarily to suggest that a deal even larger than imagined might be possible. Instead of $2 trillion in spending reductions over 10 years the White House is now suggesting that as much as $3 trillion to $4 trillion in reductions might be possible.

Of course, the clouds will come and go a few more times in this story. And as in previous negotiations, what's said outside the negotiating room may have little to do with what's going on inside. Each side is trying to shape the public story in order to put pressure on their opponent at the negotiating table. Each is also playing to its base to establish toughness in advance of a deal that might leave it open to charges of capitulation. Finally, there's the elephant-and-the-blind-man problem: There are so many moving and interconnected parts to this grand bargain that fierce disagreements over the description of one area do not give a clear description of the larger animal.

...certainly can't withstand his abandonment of party dogma on entitlements, can it?

Posted by oj at July 8, 2011 5:34 AM
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