Many Democrats are in open revolt over President Obama's tax-cut deal with Republicans, which extends the Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthy and makes the estate tax more favorable to multi-millionaires. But in monetary terms, say some, Obama actually got more out of the deal than the GOP. Is it possible that while Republicans pop the champagne and Democrats gnash their teeth, Obama actually outmaneuvered the GOP? (Watch Obama's announcement)
Obama played the GOP like a fiddle: The GOP "won again on tactics," says Andrew Sullivan in The Atlantic. But in strategic terms, Obama just made a "sucker" of GOP leaders. The deal's "big new stimulus" component "will almost certainly" lower unemployment by 2012. By cutting a deal with "the dreaded commie Muslim alien," the GOP has legitimized Obama and taken part-ownership of the deficit. All this will help Obama win re-election.
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