Will Obama be the choice of the left and moderates in 2012?

This isn’t government we’re watching; this is junior high. ...

...Beyond the malice of the threat to shut down the federal government, averted only at the last minute on Friday night, it’s painful how vapid the discourse is and how incompetent and cowardly our leaders have proved to be. ...Nicholas Kristof 

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Everyone is calling for adults these days. President Obama insisted that Congress “act like grown-ups,” adding that we don’t have time for games. I’m not sure where these adults are going to come from since almost no one seems to want to be one. ...Kathleen Parker

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... In agreeing Friday night to what he called the largest annual spending cut in the nation’s history, the president further decoupled himself from his party in Congress, exacerbating concerns among some Democrats about whether he is really one of them and is willing to spend political capital to defend their principles on bigger battles ahead. ...NYT analysis

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Democratic pollster Peter Hart said the outcome of the budget fight strengthens Obama politically. The president showed he could reduce spending — what Hart called a political crown jewel — while protecting the rights of family planning, decisions highly popular with the public.

“From this fight,” Hart said in an e-mail, “he protects his liberal flank while positioning himself as a moderate on fiscal issues. In an era where voters want compromise, the president looks like a tough negotiator rather than a weak compromiser or an ideological purist.” ...WaPo

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Obama heads into the bigger budget battle with many questioning his approach.

“One thing is clear: People are beginning to notice President Obama’s self-imposed absence from this discussion,” William Galston, a Democratic strategist and veteran of the Clinton White House, wrote this week. “Surveys are beginning to chart a decline in the public perception of him as a strong leader.” ...McClatchy

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Ezra Klein gets this right, I think: it’s one thing for Obama to decide that it was better to give in to Republican hostage-taking than draw a line in the sand; it’s another for him to celebrate the result. Yet that’s just what he did. More than that, he has now completely accepted the Republican frame that spending cuts right now are what America needs. ...Paul Krugman