As if liberated by the knowledge that they will never compromise on anything in the next fourteen months, Obama is beginning to call the far right bluff:
"I mean has anybody been watching the debates lately? You've got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change. It's true. You've got audiences cheering at the prospect of somebody dying because they don't have healthcare. And booing a service member in Iraq because they're gay."
I suspect one reason that some former Obama supporters have drifted away is because for the last eighteen months, the far right has dominated the terms of debate in this country without any strong pushback. You knew this had gone completely over the top when mere assertions that we have to have higher revenues from the wealthy to tackle the debt – a mathematical certainty without throwing out much of the Great Society and some of the New Deal – were dubbed "class warfare".
At some point, reality has to assert itself. As does a president who needs to win back the confidence of his supporters.
(Photo: US President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign fundraiser on September 25, 2011 at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, Washington. By Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
The Dish 