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Why Obama and so many Dems think the "deal" is a fair compromise, not a total capitulation or cave-in... Strategy 101.

White House Spin on Cave-In: In Securing this Bipartisan Deal, the President Rejected Proposals that Would Have Placed the Sole Burden of Deficit Reduction on Low-Income or Middle-Class Families: The President stood firmly against proposals that would have placed the sole burden of deficit reduction on lower-income and middle-class families. This includes not only proposals in the House Republican Budget that would have undermined the core commitments of Medicare to our seniors and forced tens of millions of low-income Americans to go without health insurance, but also enforcement mechanisms that would have forced automatic cuts to low-income programs. The enforcement mechanism in the deal exempts Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare benefits, unemployment insurance, programs for low-income families, and civilian and military retirement.

Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

Obama met his agenda. First and foremost, it's to get re-elected. What's that worth to progressives? Hmmmmmm....

| Glenn Greenwald | Salon.com

Maybe some of you can tell me why so many very smart people have, since the day Obama was inaugurated, deluded themselves into thinking that this admittedly very smart man, albeit one with limited political experience at the national level, was somehow going to step into office and proceed to rewrite the political laws that have governed presidential politics for the last two centuries? I'm listening.

Obama had 2 imperatives during this fight: prevent a default + get this issue off the table till after 2012. Period.

"Powerful Senate leaders on Thursday bowed to FBI concerns that adding privacy protections to an expiring provision of the Patriot Act could jeopardize "ongoing" terror investigations."

Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com