Ezra Klein thinks, as I do, that the president missed an opportunity:
I think it’s clear that the Obama administration made a mistake when it let the fiscal commission fizzle. They didn’t need to make the Simpson-Bowles recommendations their own. In fact, it would have been a mistake to do so. But they could have used the document as a way to start the negotiations on the 50-yard line. They could have defined Simpson-Bowles as the tough, unpleasant, serious compromise. Instead, they let the debate begin on their own 20-yard line.
The Dish 