I think Obama has slowly been playing chess 8 steps ahead. Checkmate is very close.

[humbled_opinion]

10. However, there are some hard realities..

This country will never adopt single party rule, the repugs still own talk radio and faux news to get their message out, a large portion of their base is soley dedicated to ending the right of choice, and will never adopt a progressive vision on life.

From the fiscal perspective, I refuse to be a lemming going over the cliff to prove a point, that mentality has the potential to backfire and not on the GOP. Our Democratic leaders must have a tax cut plan ready to go in January to assure the middleclass are not destroyed by these rate increases.

I hope you are right and best case scenario which positions Democrats as the party of middleclass tax cuts will certainly cause pain for the GOP who are currently known as the tax cutters.... Dealing with the long term fiscal health of the country and a rebounding economy will certainly ensure a diminished GOP for the near term future.... but in the end politics seems to be cyclic, when there comes a time where nationalism is again a dominate factor they may rise up again, we can only hope that our side continues to create politicians like Obama but I fear he is one of a kind....at least that is the sense I get when I listen to him speak.