Republicans Losing the Tax Issue to Obama

As I was saying about those MFM headlines.

At New York Times, "Obama Gets a Lift From Tax Battle With Republicans":

WASHINGTON — After a long stretch of high unemployment, legislative turmoil and, in turn, slipping public approval, President Obama seemed to regain his political footing this week with the help of House Republicans, whose handling of a standoff over payroll taxes had even leading conservatives attacking them for bungling the politically charged issue.

At stake were continued payroll tax cuts for 160 million workers and aid for several million long-term unemployed Americans that expire Dec. 31. The holiday brinkmanship over the issue recalled the December budget showdown 16 years ago between another first-term Democratic president, Bill Clinton, and a new Republican Congressional majority — a fight that capped their year of confrontation over the nation’s fiscal priorities by reviving Mr. Clinton politically as he began his re-election race.

But the impasse was not without risks for Mr. Obama. Democrats fretted that Mr. Obama’s vow to stay in Washington through Christmas and New Year’s to get a deal would backfire should he join his family in Hawaii before a resolution. Also, though House Republicans were bearing the brunt of criticism for the latest show of Washington dysfunction, Mr. Obama could be hurt if the tax break and jobless aid are not extended and the fragile economy sours, as nonpartisan economic forecasters have warned it will without the continued stimulus measures.

And while even other Republicans were predicting that the House Republicans would have to blink, or risk further political damage, the ugliness of the fight reminded Americans yet again of the seeming futility of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign promise to make Washington work as the year of his re-election race is upon him.

Sounds balanced, right? Obama faces liabilities just like the GOP? Well, not exactly. Republicans have to run not only against their Democratic opponents but against the MFM as well (i.e., the "Mother F***ing Media). Republicans won't get breaks from the press. So they can't afford to screw up as bad as they are right now by giving the Democrats the upper hand in the public relations battle. The irony is that John Boehner's right: Republicans are the party of tax cuts, but they're blowing the year-end politics on a grand scale.

Miracles do happen, of course. Maybe the Democrats will beat the odds and manage to screw up this gift they've been given by Boehner's incompetence. It's a riveting political battle, at least.