"The president's promise to fight"

Kaili Joy Gray's front page Dairy on Kos:

For two years, the president has steadily built the case that despite his efforts at bipartisanship, Republicans have consistently operated in bad faith. The president need not call any more witnesses, offer any more evidence; Americans know Republicans will not cooperate. It is time, at last, for the president to stop building his case and deliver his closing argument.

Instead, the president delivered yet more concessions to a party devoted to his failure. He had no choice, he said, because Republicans are "unwilling to budge." They have been unwilling to budge since Obama took office. They have promised further unwillingness in the next session of Congress.

For Republicans, the president said, tax cuts for the rich is "the single most important thing that they have to fight for as a party." That isn't true, though, and the president knows it. The whole country knows it. Their number one priority, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said, is to make Obama a one-term president. (Apparently, further restricting women's reproductive rights runs a close second, though.)

What if, instead of conceding to the demands of the hostage-takers, the president had taken a different tactic? What if he had instead turned to the American people before he had cut a deal to save the hostages?

"The Republicans are taking you hostage," the president could have said to the American people. "They have put the livelihood of millions, and our chances of economic recovery, at risk, all so they can give tax cuts to the rich. But I will not let them do it. This is my line in the sand, and I will not surrender to the demands of hostage takers." MORE...