"Give them enough rope" is the tried and true tactic of choice for the patient strategist in a superior position. As I followed the debate in these pages and other media about President Obama's intent, will and ability (and noted the wide diversity of opinions regarding the same), I frankly couldn't tell what was going on, for certain. (I have my own opinion about Barak Obama, which is to say that I hold him in very high regard, but I don't agree with his positions on some issues that are very dear to me. ) In any case, I watched his public address today, and could not help but admire how he smoothly sawed off the branch that the teahadists had chosen to perch on. And it rose to my mind that this whole fight was taking place because the social arsonists in the Republican Party voluntarily chose to confront the President over something that had previously been a non-issue. Looking at the big picture, how could he lose this battle?
"When your enemy is making a mistake, don't stop him".
The impatient Republican caucus overreached in their furor, imagining a victory that was never acheivable, and forcing John Boehner's hand at every turn to advance their intransigent position. I could see the President sweetening the pot with each deal, provoking strong protests in reaction to his apparent surrender of vital Democratic values (and electoral points) in return for an debt ceiling increase that by rights should have been a matter of routine.
We know more about the President's character today than we did in January 2009. He will take a risk - intelligently. That was shown by how he got You-know-who. Offering the Republicans concessions that were on the verge of unacceptibilty for his own party took the risk that his offer might be accepted - but he counted on the Tea Party Caucus to be rigid, strident, and unreasonable, and they played right into his hands.
Today in his national address he made his case to the American people, and judging by the way that people responded to his request that they call Congress, the people have heard. He has directed the ire of everyone across the political spectrum outside of the Tea Party squarely at them. They stand exposed as the hostage-takers of the American economy, and also as spoiled children who simply won't be reasonable with the adults.
I don't think this outcome was the result of chance. I see a negotiating strategy appropriate to a multi-party, multi-variant problem, where the goal is concensus. When you have to attack an unreasonable party in that context, you start by isolating their position. The Teahadists made a gift of themselves by violently pursuing their isolation. Barack Obama just schooled them for it, I believe.