republicans who have wanted to wage the epic battle against obamacare regardless of the odds, letting this thing go into a shutdown even though they re blaming democrats for being inflexible and unwilling to compromise in this manner, it s a way they can prove to themselves and their constituents that they were willing to risk it all. and for democrats looking for an event to help them maintain control of the senate and have any chance of winning the house of representatives in 2014, they look at the polling on this and say this is the external event we need. we don t want the government to shut down. of course, that s what they re saying. but if it does, it s a fight we ll win and possibly benefit from. jon: do you see either side blinking? right now, no. and i believe that the prospects for a shutdown are highly likely. the question is how long does it last? what does each side do over the course of this week? and the one thing we have to be aware of, which i have not totally figur