Ezra Klein sees an opening:
[I]t would behoove Obama to press the reset button. To say that he made a mistake. At the very least, a process based off Bowles-Simpson would have forced both sides to recognize what a reasonable, centrist proposal looked like. That alone is better than what we’ve had thus far. The failure of the congressional negotiations presents an opportunity to undo that mistake. Obama should ask Congress to begin drafting legislation based on Bowles-Simpson, including some fixes (few Republicans will resist the White House’s entreaties to lower the defense cuts) and additions (no deficit proposal should be signed if it doesn’t extend unemployment insurance and the payroll tax cut).
Allow me to second that. Tom Friedman adds his suport today as well. As readers know, I was crushed by the political decision last January to punt on Bowles-Simpson, and have recently argued that radical tax simplification should be integral to Obama's re-election campaign. Obama should run for re-election on Simpson-Bowles and isolate Romney as the defender of the super-wealthy and a captive of an exhausted ideology.
The Dish 