The congressional gantlet of government shutdown and financial default plays out with President Obama seen as somewhat powerless to thwart the impending disaster unless he caves to Republican demands. As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman writes:
Meanwhile,... reasonable people know that Mr. Obama can’t and won’t let himself be blackmailed in this way... After all, once he starts making concessions to people who threaten to blow up the world economy unless they get what they want, he might as well tear up the Constitution. But Republican radicals — and even some leaders — still insist that Mr. Obama will cave in to their demands.
Unsaid is the reason that so many people expect President Obama to "cave" is because he has made it a regular practice in his presidency. He has been the Wuss in Chief in previous controversies to the point that even conservative pundits have complained about it.
As far back as July 5, 2011, columnist David Frum, a former presidential advisor to Dubya, wrote:
The debt ceiling negotiations have amounted to a succession of retreats and concessions by President Obama. ... The president's weakness, however, empowered the most radical Republicans. Would one more hard push extract one more big concession? The answer was always, "yes." So the radicals pushed -- and pushed again -- and incidentally pushed would-be dealmakers to the side.
(http://www.cnn.com/...)
Kevin Drum at Mother Jones on the Senate vote for the cliff earlier this year:
"In the longer term, I'd score it a win for the GOP. Their backs were against a wall, since the Bush tax cuts were all going to expire anyway on January 1, and they managed to do two things. First, they kept the size of the deal limited. Second, they showed that Obama, as usual, isn't serious when he lays down a line in the sand. No matter how firmly he insists on something, he's always willing to deal. This is going to make Part 2 of the fiscal cliff negotiations very, very dangerous." (http://www.motherjones.com/...)
Paul Krugman on the cliff vote:
"So why the bad taste in progressives’ mouths? It has less to do with where Obama ended up than with how he got there. He kept drawing lines in the sand, then erasing them and retreating to a new position. And his evident desire to have a deal before hitting the essentially innocuous fiscal cliff bodes very badly for the confrontation looming in a few weeks over the debt ceiling. If Obama stands his ground in that confrontation, this deal won’t look bad in retrospect. If he doesn’t, yesterday will be seen as the day he began throwing away his presidency and the hopes of everyone who supported him." (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/...)
In January, 2013, Joseph J. Thorndike of The Tax Analysts Blog:
"Obama entered this debate with impressive advantages. He has now obliterated all of them. And he's certainly reassured Republicans that he is still the same easy mark he’s always been."
(http://www.taxanalysts.com/...)
President Obama now appears to have little choice but to take the country into a financial nightmare. There is only one possible alternative. If the President uses the temporary government shutdown to primarily shutdown government services in Republican areas and continue services in Democratic areas, there is hope. But at this point, those shutdowns have to be permanent. For example, in Arizona there are two large Air Force bases, Davis Monthan and Luke. President Obama should close both as an "emergency measure" and transfer their operations to New Mexico. Permanently, so they don't go back after the shutdown. The shutdown has to mean financial disaster for Republicans, otherwise financial disaster for everyone, perhaps even the world, will occur with the fiscal default.
President Teddy Roosevelt said it best: "the unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly."