Great article that articulates one of my big concerns….
President Obama’s team is deep in negotiations with Congress over how to find common ground on the fate of the Bush-era tax cuts. And liberals are afraid that the White House may be too quick to cede ground to Republicans without securing concessions in return.
That concern is not unique to the tax-cut debate. People on the left have been concerned about Obama’s negotiating style for some time now.
In contrast, Senate Republicans sent Majority Leader Harry Reid a letter Wednesday with what amounts to an ultimatum: “We will not agree to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to any legislative item until the Senate has agreed to fund the government and we have prevented the tax increase that is currently awaiting all American taxpayers.”
In other words, vote on tax cuts and spending bills now, or forget about everything else you want to get done during the lame-duck session. It’s the kind of strong, unified negotiating posture Republicans have become known for in the past two years.
But to the dismay of liberal activists such as Justin Ruben, executive director of the group MoveOn, Obama has developed a different reputation.
“Looking right now at the tax cuts — the White House [is] signaling willingness to pre-emptively cave on what is effectively a tax bailout to millionaires,” Ruben says. “I think it’s profoundly upsetting to people.”
AND
Even some Republicans share this view of the president as a poor negotiator.
“It’s sort of like telegraphing your passes in basketball. It’s easy to steal a pass,” says Jim Walsh, a former congressman from upstate New York, now with the lobbying firm K&L Gates.
He says this kind of politicking just is not in Obama’s blood.
“He’s never been in the leadership position in either body,” Walsh says, “so he didn’t have to do the negotiating, the horse-trading, that a Mitch McConnell would have grown up on, or a Harry Reid would have grown up on, or a John Boehner would have grown up on. The president has not had to do this.”
In fact, this president has always expressed disdain for the negotiating games that make up the daily routine in Washington.
But it is a game that he is in, whether he wants to play it or not.
Lost in the 21st Century 
It’s a done deal as far as the extending all the Bush tax cuts. The Republicans are going to strong arm the Democrats into a taking a position to support their agenda or else! So just today CNN reports that Obama & the GOP have agreed to a “bi-partisanship framework” to extended Bush tax cuts for 2 more yrs, and extend 13 mos. of unemployment insurance. If the Dems would have bucked the request(oh, wouldn’t that be something?!), then no support for extending unemployment. Negotiation is not Obama’s strong suit. He acquiesced in order to go along to get along. It’s a strategy I hope he doesn’t regret, because I know the Republicans are going stab him in the back at their earliest convenience. That is, as soon as they come officially into power this coming January 2011.
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