Grover C. Obama

More and more, at times, Preznit Kumbaya, the current occupier of the White House, reminds me of his 20th-previous predecessor, Grover Cleveland, in his second stint, as our 24th president.

The continued iffiness of Congressional Republicans to do a deal on the national deficit, and the logistic difficulties of getting such a deal done by Aug. 2, are the latest reason why.

Cleveland showed leadership Obama didn't, it's true. He more deliberately sucked up to Wall Street and ignored the working class than Obama did. But the similarities are there.

Paul Krugman says President Obama never expected that the current GOP would play this level of hardball with debt-ceiling issues. That's why he was too dumb to link a debt-ceiling rise to his extension of the Bush Obama tax cuts.

Bear in mind that G.O.P. leaders don’t actually care about the level of debt. Instead, they’re using the threat of a debt crisis to impose an ideological agenda. ...

And the reason Republicans are doing this is because they must believe that it will work: Mr. Obama caved in over tax cuts, and they expect him to cave again. They believe that they have the upper hand, because the public will blame the president for the economic crisis they’re threatening to create. In fact, it’s hard to avoid the suspicion that G.O.P. leaders actually want the economy to perform badly.

But, is Krugman right? Maybe Obama wants to be forced into a new "compromise" on this issue. Maybe we have yet to plunge the depths of how far he is beyond neoliberal to straight up conservative wannabe.