Mean Street: Cantor and the Republicans Outbluff Obama

"... And from what I can see, the Republicans are schooling the Democrats in what brinksmanship is all about.

That’s not the conventional wisdom. Inside-the-beltway pundits will tell you that it’s exactly the other way around. The Republicans aren’t united, they say, they’re in disarray.

Please. That President Obama even has to sit in a room and get smarmy lectures from a lowly House Majority leader is a victory for the Republicans. So is the fact that Moody’s and S&P have put America’s AAA debt rating under review.

That’s why the president is so unhappy and why he stormed out of the room the other day.

Losing your cool is poor brinksmanship – and so is warning the other side, “Don’t call my bluff.”  It shows everyone that you’ve lost control of the situation.

The trouble for the president is that he just has too much to lose by really going to the brink. Consider a scenario if August 2 arrives and he has to sit at his Oval Office desk and grimly explain the coming financial Armageddon to the nation.

For Obama, it would be like reading a confession of his own incompetence..."

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Full story: http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/07/15/mean-street-cantor-and-the-republicans-outbluff-obama/