Obama has played the Republicans like a damned fiddle, yet we are worried about his technique

The Republicans talked all their mess about reducing the deficit, President Obama called their bluff and went big, they didn't want to go as big as he did.

It should be pointed out Obama only said he was open to looking at entitlements. He never said he wanted to, he said it had to be considered and even then conventional wisdom points to his being focused on saving money through efficiencies and not necessarily cuts to benefits.

He did however say he wanted to new revenues mainly by closing tax loop holes and let the Bush tax cuts expire. Which is what we wanted, right?

Obama UNDERMINED, House Speaker John Boehner by meeting him more than halfway, but asking to close loopholes and to let the Bush tax for the wealthy expire. He has also portrayed himself as an adult and rationale, unfortunately many folks on our side don't appreciate that.

So today, Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are looking for a way out of this fight. They are willing to give him his debt ceiling.

While our base is still freaking out over a deal that hasn't happened,many of our members of Congress are looking to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Meanwhile the Republicans, whose tea party base had drawn a line of no increase in the debt limit, find themselves looking for a way increase the debt limit.

This is far from over, but Obama is playing the game very well and I hope his critics on the left take notice.

The tendency that many progressives have to believe the worst about Obama is a big problem

The minute the Washington Post story broke that claimed Obama was putting Social Security cuts on the table I knew what I would see on the progressive blogosphere, hear on Ed Schultz, see on twitter, etc. The White House via Jay Carney went on the record and said:

"There is no news here. The President has always said that while social security is not a major driver of the deficit, we do need to strengthen the program and the President said in the State of the Union Address that he wanted to work with both parties to do so in a balanced way that preserves the promise of the program and doesn't slash benefits."

But the damage is already done. The biggest obstacle facing us in 2012 is our circular firing squad, led by those who choose to always believe the worse about the president, hell they even root for it.