The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a stopgap measure to avoid a government shutdown, which was widely seen as Democrats "conceding defeat." Republicans won $4 billion in spending cuts in the deal to keep the government funded until March 18, although the trimming came from programs President Obama had already said were unnecessary. Democrats vow they'll rebound for the "real battle" over the budget for the remaining seven months of the fiscal year. But after this setback, can Democrats regroup? (See Democrats push for compromise)
They can recover... with Obama's help: Don't count out the Democrats, says Ezra Klein at The Washington Post. As soon as this "two-week reprieve" was passed, President Obama got into the game by inviting leaders to "hammer out a deal" at the White House. This is the same kind of last-minute power play Obama used when the Bush tax cuts were about to expire last year, and "despite the skepticism of people like, well, me, it worked."
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