I've been watching this "dance" on the debt ceiling closely (as I'm sure many on this site have), and with the passage of a bill on Friday, I think the Republicans have "won" this debate. Follow me below the squiggle to understand my thinking.
As has been mentioned time and again, there are two parties to this "debate" - one that actually cares about what happens to the American people (or at least has some members who claim to care) and one that is perfectly willing to shoot the hostage and whatever happens to the economy be damned because "cutting government spending" is more important than ANYTHING else.
The end result - the people who "care" will bend over backwards to do whatever is possible to avoid the shooting of the hostage, even if what they end up doing could be worse then letting the hostage be shot (both in the short term and the long term). In the short term, the result is mandated government spending cuts that send us back into a recession (and possibly worse) to prevent government default. In the long run - more significant cuts or a government default anyway since the "hostage takers" will just keep taking hostages and we'll never be able to raise taxes to help balance the budget.
So why have the Republicans won? Becuase the House passed something. And for the vast majority of the public who have no idea of the details, Boehner can lay any failure to raise the debt ceiling at the feet of the Dems and the President simply by saying "we passed something and they rejected it". Period. For low information voters, that's enough. They'll think "well, Boehner did his job, why couldn't the Senate and the President just pass that and avoid default"? And as gifted as the President is oratorically, I just don't think he can convey an answer that will be sufficiently understood by the public to overcome that simple statement.
Personally, I think we should not take the hostage and the President and Senate should not agree to any mandated cuts for a "second round" of raising the debt ceiling. But they're too scared of their own shadows to call the bluff of the Republicans and the Republicans know it. So we'll continue down this path of ultimate financial disaster. Sad, it doesn't have to be this way, but as they say, "we get the leaders we deserve".