Obama is the compromiser-in-chief. The guy who, when presented with alternatives, gives the opposition what they want in the naive belief that doing so will win points with the media and succor favor among the mythical class of independents. There are no independents -- people know what they believe and want.
What this entire debt ceiling charade does is favor the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. Let's be clear on this and agree. The "Grand Bargain" the media trumps as the perfect solution to this crisis is just another means of kicking the can down the road.
Any economist with half a brain will tell you that the problem is lack of demand -- consumers don't have money. Rephrased: consumers don't have money. Tax cuts for the wealthiest mean nothing to middle- and lower-class Americans who pull pennies out of the sofa hoping just to keep their lights on. No grand bargain will solve this. Only when what's left of the middle class and everyone else have money to consume goods and services will the economy lift out of the negative feedback loop we're in. If, after paying rent/mortgage, utilities, food, you have some extra cash to spend on other goods, you just might. There's no rebound without putting more of that cash in consumers' pockets to spend at local businesses.
The solution is more jobs for more Americans -- a WPA effort, wherein the "full faith and credit" of the United States goes to pay willing Americans to fix the shitshow that is our national infrastructure, and along the way, allows people to stay in their homes, eat, and support local businesses. A rising tide does lift all ships, but the way to raise that tide isn't by lifting taxes on the wealthiest, but to support actual job creators. The economy is neither a mysterious entity nor a scientifically exacted known. But it's beyond common sense that if individual x has more money to spend on things x desires that businesses which provide what x wants will benefit from x's ability to spend there. This is common fucking sense!
We need a second WPA, not a grand bargain that sacrifices the most vulnerable for the benefit of the least.