I've been disappointed in Obama the last couple of months, and even posted a diary saying if he wasn't going to fight, maybe he should resign.
That being said, I think we should support the proposal he laid out. It's not great. Maybe it's not even good. But if we get unemployment insurance extension without offsets, continue the lower income and middle class tax cuts including the additional cuts, including the ones in the stimulus package, then there is enough good to offset the bad. But the Republicans need to vote for it, not just not filibuster it and let the Democrats take the heat.
Here are some reasons:
It improves the chances of the economy getting better between now and 2012, and Obama can take credit for that.
It creates a potential fight between the Republicans and their base, especially the tea partiers crowing for deficit reduction.
It also allows Obama to take credit for bipartisanship and compromise, again something the Republican base hates but the Democratic base likes.
I know the majority on this site may disagree with me, but I thought from the beginning that if he doesn't get unemployment without offsets in return for extending the upper income tax breaks, he's lost me as a supporter. Well, it looks like he got that, so I have to give him credit for getting what I thought was a key concession.
Addendum: Let me clarify something. The fact that I think that we should take this deal does NOT mean that I think that Obama got outplayed by the Republicans or that something shouldn't have been done in June 2009 or that the deal is great. I view it more like a bad stock purchase. You bought the stock at $100, watched it drop to $50, thought it would bounce, then it went down to $20, and it bounces back to $25, at which point you sell because you know it's going to $10. That's the way I view this situation.
For this deal to make sense, Obama needs to be out there EVERY SINGLE DAY from now until November 2012 stating he will NOT sign another cut for the rich after this one expires. Make it a fundamental issue in the 2012 campaign. And make it a differentiating issue with the Republicans. But if taxes go up in January, even temporarily, he'll get the blame as someone said in the comments. And as weak as he may appear now, that would make it even worse. Can you say President Palin?