An another excellent editorial by one of my fav talking heads - Michael Barone.  In his latest, Barone summarizes the state of Congress leading up to the current God-awful mess.  The salient point:  elections do indeed have consequences.  The Democrats transitioned quickly from an arrogant 'I won, you lost' one party system where they could ram almost anything down the Republican's, and the American People's,  throats they wished, to a mealy-mouthed group of whiners and petulant man-children complaining that the Republicans took their limitless credit cards away.  Damn their Republican hides to hell.

Barone also makes a fascinating point, made no where else that I have read:  The Democrats could have averted the current manufactured "crisis" simply by passing a debt limit bill during their lame duck session after the 2010 elections.  In the ever scheming ways of Washington politics, Barone seems to be suggesting that the Harry Reid led Democrats calculated by not raising the debt ceiling when they could have easily done so, they believed it would set the stage for a damaging in-fight between Tea Party Republicans and RINOS.  While there certainly was tension in the room between the two factions, if the Democrats were hoping to split the Republican party, they lost that gambit, and in this case, they lost big time.

Despite the leftist media trying desperately to spin this manufactured crisis as much as possible as mindless and reckless Republican obstructionism, it seems many Americans, even on the left, got the underlying issue.  I've read various message board posts from self-described avowed leftists expressing disgust in Obama and his handling of a mess he was instrumental in creating.   While we wait for the final details to be hammered out and then published on the debt deal, one thing is crystal clear:  Obama is the biggest loser.  Even die-hard liberals saw an ineffective, petulant, self-absorbed President.  They are not likely to forget it.  While political cycles can be measured in time-spans less than dog years, Obama has severely damaged himself, his credibility, and the built-in prestige as President of the United States.  It will take no small miracle to climb back from this low over the next year or so.  Our only complaint:  November 2012 can't come fast enough.

Here's to hoping the final deal comes across an an honorable compromise on the Republican's part, and not a cave or capitulation.  If the basic deal remains more or less intact:  significant deficit spending reduction with no or modest revenue increases, then the biggest winners will not be the Republicans, but the American People, whether some may realize it or not.