that s going to affect ft. as well as it s going to affect the congress. karen finney, are we in a situation, again, how s the democratic base going to react to the fact that republicans draw a firmer line in the sand than democrats do and republicans get their way every time, whether it was on the cr, whether it was on extending the bush tax cuts, everything the president said he wasn t for, he eventually signs on to, including, by the way, spending cuts connected to the debt ceiling vote, which he had ruled out. when do the base say, this guy stinks at negotiating? i think they ve been saying that for some time. i think that s why nancy pelosi and those in the house have been emboldened. they ve been hearing from the base who is screaming, jumping up and down saying, this guy has given away the store before he even sat down to the table. ironically, though, it may be in the end that obama ends up being the smartest guy after all. because he went out there with the big idea, boehn