Obama Runs Up the White Flag Yet Again Before the Republicans Fire a Shot

It is incredible but the "leader" of the Democrats, Barack Obama, seems able to shoot himself in the foot and cripple any message before he meets with his Republican "rivals".

Here is the latest example: the White House response to the unexpected release of Obama's "Deficit Commission".

This proposal wasn't the official commission release. It was a proposal, an insider's "deal" by the two leaders of the commission, sprung on Obama and the rest of the world before the 14 members of the commission got a chance to see it. It calls for cuts and cuts and cuts... oh, and by the way, it include "tax cuts" (yeah!) for the rich. That's the way to get fiscal sanity. Lower the tax revenues to make sure that those pesky shortfalls between revenue and spending gape even wider. That is the sage advice of the two co-chairs of the commission.

And of course Obama's White House rushed out to offer up a "compromise" surrender before they even begin to engage the Republicans. Here's David Axelrod on Huffington Post:

President Barack Obama's top adviser suggested to The Huffington Post late Wednesday that the administration is ready to accept an across-the-board, temporary continuation of steep Bush-era tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest taxpayers.

That appears to be the only way, said David Axelrod, that middle-class taxpayers can keep their tax cuts, given the legislative and political realities facing Obama in the aftermath of last week's electoral defeat.

"We have to deal with the world as we find it," Axelrod said during an unusually candid and reflective 90-minute interview in his office, steps away from the Oval Office. "The world of what it takes to get this done."

Yep... the first step in tightening the fiscal belt is to give tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of individual tax cuts to billionaires. That shows that Obama is "serious" about narrowing the deficit.

Oh... I guess deciding to sell the Air Force to China for $1 would show that America is serious about its defense needs.

And putting a 100% levy on all US manufactured goods would show that the government is serious about taking steps to "revive" manufacturing in America.

There are so many innovative steps that can be taken to show "serious intent" on the part of the White House. I'm surprised they stop at this introductory offer of giving away $700 billion in tax cuts to billionaires by "extending" the Bush tax cuts. Surely they can be more inventive. The above suggestions are meant to simply get the creative juices "flowing".

Take a look for yourself at the draft version of the Obama Deficit Commission's "suggestions".