Obama's talking to himself again

It's good to know that Mr. Obama's omnidirectional placation sensors are still online, even after a grueling campaign season. (And by 'good to know,' I mean 'oh god.') In an aptly entitled piece - 'Snatching Defeat out of the Jaws of Victory' - Robert Kuttner points out that the president is negotiating with himself again, before he's anywhere near the negotiating table. This time it's about the so-called fiscal cliff, with regard to which Mr. Obama has freely declared, via the apparently indispensable Erskine Bowles, that he may be 'flexible' on the question of putting tax rates for top earners back to what they were before the Bush tax cuts took effect. (And by 'be flexible' he means 'may not bother with it, even though I have leverage now that the election is done, and even though the bulk of my constituents want it.')

Kuttner's best line:

Obama still has a novice’s habit of softening his negotiating position going in, rather than holding possible concessions in his pocket for the final round. Republicans just take the concession as the new starting point and don’t concede anything in return. Where is his learning curve on this? Lyndon Johnson or Harry Truman would weep.