I think Jake Weisberg makes an essential point (and Jake is not a conservative by any means):
If the GOP gets behind his proposals in a serious way, it will become for the first time in modern memory an intellectually serious party—one with a coherent vision to match its rhetoric of limited government. Democrats are within their rights to point out the negative effects of Ryan's proposed cuts on future retirees, working families, and the poor. He was not specific about many of his cuts, and Democrats have a political opportunity in filling in the blanks. But the ball is now in their court, and it will be hard to take them seriously if they don't respond with their own alternative path to debt reduction and long-term solvency.
That's especially true for Obama.
We were told that his refusal to back his own debt commission or offer anything serious to tackle the long-term debt was because it would political suicide to go first in outlining entitlement and defense cuts. We were told that presidential leadership on this meant he had to get the opposition to share some of the heat.
Well, he now has the opposition breaking with thirty years of fiscal surrealism and actually proposing something that would seriously cut the debt. So his excuses are over. He has many options: he could propose real cuts in defense, or make tax reform revenue-positive even as rates fall.
The Dish 