David Ignatius fires one off that sets the bar for full coverage.
All the key village tropes get hit- all in one place for your reading pleasure. More below the fold.
So what does the village think about the deal?
-It's Obama's fault for not creating a grand bargain:
After President Obama failed to negotiate a serious “grand bargain,” he had to be rescued with a mini-bargain brokered by Vice President Biden...
- Obama won a mandate, but does not want to use it:
Obama had seemed poised a few weeks ago to become at last the political leader the country needs. He won a brilliant election victory, using political tools so sophisticated that Republican strategists have been trying ever since to reverse- engineer them so they can avoid humiliating defeats
-Entitlements are THE problem:
Rather than come to the table with a grand vision of his own — a real strategy for cutting the deficit and the entitlement programs that drive it
- Simpson-Bowles was a done deal, had only the President "embraced" it:
He didn’t formulate a plan for long-term solvency partly because he didn’t want to give up the political weapon of Social Security before the 2012 election; he didn’t fully embrace the Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction plan for the same reason.
It was Obama and not the GOP that demanded Social Security be on the table:
although Obama finally offered in last month’s discussions with Boehner to revise the cost-of-living adjustment to Social Security, he retreated after the Plan B debacle.
-It's OK to use the "deficit" as a political tool- but only sometimes, and of course, Obama never urges fiscal reform because he lives to spend:
Let’s assume it was tactically smart for Obama to play politics with the deficit issue through the campaign. Having won, Obama should quickly have taken the high ground and urged the fiscal reforms that every thoughtful member of his team knows are necessary
-Of course, Saint Reagan knew how to take it to the people:
Obama should communicate his vision forcefully to the country, governing over Congress’s head as Ronald Reagan did, if necessary.
-And finally, Obama has not yet been "strong" and is a failure:
Obama can still be the strong, successful president the country needs — but not unless he lifts his game.
The word Defense is never used. The fact that Simpson Bowles made NO suggestions is never stated. The GOP has nothing to do with anything- who are they again? Its assumed that Obama is a weak failure because he is a Democrat, of course.
That's all you need to know about where the village stands.....
What a pathetic example of big time punditry. Or should I say, a perfect example....