Obama's Negotiating Strategy, or Lack Thereof

Let me revise my post from last night.  Obama allowed the Republicans to enter the safety of the courthouse, like the sheriff in Blazing Saddles.  I can't express how inexplicable it is that Obama caved on almost all of the Bush tax cuts, without getting any real concessions from the Republicans, especially on the debt limit.  Now, instead of the Republicans holding the gun to their own head, they've got the economy to hold hostage in the debt limit negotiations.  Instead of clearing up the "uncertainty" of the "fiscal cliff," the struggle is extended for another couple months.  Also, Obama has given up the most valuable bargaining chips for greater revenue.  How on earth he could agree to extend preferential tax treatment for dividends is beyond me, and why he let captial gains (and dividend) rates remain at 15% when Ronald Fucking Reagan thought 28% was a fair number is stunning.  Republicans are now going to be able to play off Americans' belief that the"undeserving" poor need benefit cuts while rich folks (like me) bank more unearned income, and there is no real chance of taxes going up on anybody but the filthy rich.  We are going to find out how sustainable a bastardized version of Modern Monetary Theory really is.