first reaction is what was the last year and a half all about? it looked like a pivot point in the presidency at the end of the deet ceiling showdown and the instinct in the wake of the 2010 mid terms is to strike some kind of big bipartisan grand bargain and be a compromiser in chief and looked like the lesson of the white house in the showdown is you can't compromise as it is currently constituted. obama made the point over and over again and basically laid it out there $250,000. i want the bush tax rates to disappear. i want to use it as a referendum on that, and quote, his words, break the fever and went in to the negotiations after winning by four points. 332 electoral votes. if he ever had a mandate, the