So they'll pass it and the GOP will campaign on the fact that we have a weak President.

...and some of us will agree with them.

all of this is that they KNOW we have a weak president. They'd never even try to pull this off with a strong Executive willing to stand up for, well, anything. Bet on it. As for the campaign, good chance that Obama will win by default as the GOP is currently burying itself with this impasse. A reminder that big mouth Newt Gingrich, largely responsible for shutting down the government in 1995/96, was defeated in 1998 and he was Speaker.

Many of us already realized that!

makes one wonder why Republicans would want a Republican President. I doubt very seriously they could get nearly as much of their agenda accomplished without Obama..Remember they have been trying to gut America's Social Programs for over half a century now but could only get things done under a Democratic Administration...I am becomming far more afraid for our country under an Obama Administration than any Republican I could think of.

far more afraid of people like you than I am of our president. You're the one who's given up.If you think this is worse than any possible republican administration you're suffering a serious lack of imagination and cognitive recognition. What's happening is a segment of the body politic which absolutely does not care what happens to the nation as a whole has worked itself into a position where they can frustrate the aims of those who do care. Granted it's a minority position but I don't think the founders envisioned a minority dedicated to little more than their own survival which depends on further enriching their base at the expense of everybody else.

whether it is held by a D or R. It is defined in Article II. It is not meant to be a strongman position.

The whole weakness meme is immature. Discussing politics this way is pretty uneducated.

Any rational discussion of this "crisis" includes the House's part in it. Congress is just as "weak" as the President is. They can pass something by a landslide and a President could veto it.

Running the US House.

And no, the President isn't weak. He is doing the best he can in the context of GOP/Tea-terror and the Constitution.

Embracing Hoover's policies over FDR's is not the best he can.

How does he do that Constitutionally?

The schoolyard metaphor has been officially overused. It has jumped the shark.

In fact, the Republicans used it first.

He simply doesn't have the stomach for the sort of brutal political fight that's required. LBJ would have put the Tea Party out of business in six months......

any deal is seen as a win for the President in that he was able to bring the two "angry" sides together in an agreement. Plus the GOPers are seen as being unreasonable which caused this to be such a huge crisis when it didnt need to be.

I leave it to insane right wingers to call their political opponent's "terrorists" as though that is a magical label.

I'm not going to be able to explain Otto you. But if you do agree that they've taken hostages, then they are defacto terrorists. It's not hyperbole, it's what they've done before and unless we stand up to him, we will be faced with escalation domestic terrarium from a group we call our representatives.

And will blame any and all SS/medicare/medicaid cuts on him alone.

But that is what they do. There is nothing unexpected or surprising about it. Reality or who-really-caused-what doesn't matter to them. The real question is, what to the rank and file dems in congress do about it since Obama doesn't give a shit about them?

his failure to be re-elected as much as it is his fault completely will be blamed by our side on us the "super-liberals".

The republicans will run a scorched earth campaign the likes of which we will never have ever seen before. It will brutal with every lie and re-written republican history note they have.

They will succeed.

The only thing that will make what the GOP says about Obama matter is if it is reinforced by Democrats. They have been grasping at straws to bash him any which way from day 1.
Weak is adopting their talking points out of resentment of not getting a progressive dictator.

There's no going back to a progressive Republican I could only get much much worse. The president who was an advocate for the poor died in the 60s. He also inspired Reagan and co and apparently A LOT of people agree with the 80s rhetoric as yuppies and gen xers picked it up and pushed Clinton to "reform" welfare. If you're privileged enough to not worry about more wars and truly dismantling the social safety net-- more power to ya.
It's not just corporations pushing the agenda- it's voters. We are very much a minority. We are now in a position to expose the radical right minority and it's influence. The people who are not fond of the tea party are not going to fall for the flip side.
The "independent voters" are not so much independent as issue voters. They are willing to give in on some things for their personal favorites.
This is the country we live in. We can pretend that isn't so and just let them really win or we can compete for moderate voters who sympathize with a need to compromise.
If things were to go drastically wrong, I would only hope the people on the right and left who are privileged enough to survive a true disaster might rethink their positions.

Dubya.