Obama’s evolution: Behind the failed ‘grand bargain’ on the debt

Washington Post  "From the White House point of view, those few days show a politically selfless president willing to rise above the partisan fray and make difficult choices for the good of the country — if only obstinate Republicans would meet him halfway."

...." He was caught between his own aspirations for historical significance and his inherent political caution. And he was unable to bridge a political divide that had only grown wider since he took office with a promise to change the ways of Washington, underscoring the gulf between the way he campaigned and the way he had governed.

"In the end, that brief effort, described by White House officials as the most intense and consequential of Obama’s presidency, not only illuminated pitfalls in the road he had taken during the previous three years but also directed him down a different, harder-edged, more overtly partisan path that is now defining his reelection campaign."

Rush Limbaugh discussed all this in some detail in his Monday program: "What Boehner and the boys decided to do was essentially call his bluff.  He was setting up to run against a do-nothing Congress.  They said, "Okay, here you go."  Obama rejected it and then addressed the nation and lied. He told the American people that the Republicans were intractable, inflexible.

"It was their way or the highway. They wouldn't give an inch. When in fact they had given Obama -- this is the key -- everything he wanted.  And that's what he couldn't afford.  The trick that they played on Obama was giving him what he wanted.  They forced Obama to reject that, then go do a national address -- a prime-time address to the nation -- and lie about it."