I apologize if this article seems disrespectful to the President, but I watched him have a temper tantrum on national television last night.  Had any one of my grandchildren spoken in the tone he used with the body language he used, they would have been sent to their room.  The President’s press conference did nothing to bridge the divide–it made compromise considerably more difficult.  The message I heard from the President at the press conference was:  the Republicans have to compromise, the 2010 election is irrelevant, I am going to make everyone come talk to me tomorrow morning, and I am going to hold my breath until I turn blue.  That was my impression.

Today’s Daily Caller had a slightly different reaction.  Neil Munro posted an article pointing out that the problem for the President was that because John Boehner stood his ground on no new taxes, the President’s plan to use this situation to boost his chances for re-election in 2012 did not go as planned.  If serious tax increases are part of the eventual deal, there will be a serious split in the Republican Party.  There will also be a problem getting those tax increases through the House of Representatives.  Evidently, what caused the breakdown in the debt ceiling talks was the fact that the President added a last-minute demand for $400 billion in tax increases.  This is in addition to any tax revenue that would result from the repeal of the ‘Bush tax cuts.’  I will admit that I am sick of hearing about the ‘Bush tax cuts.’  In December, when the compromise budget deal was reached, the President stated that raising taxes on anyone would slow economic growth.  Has he changed his mind?  Did that statement (like so many others) have an expiration date?

The article reported:

“Boehner explained his decision to work with the Senate by saying the president’s negotiating position was unclear.

“”Never once did the President ever come to the table with a plan,” he said. “We were always pushing … [but] dealing with them is like dealing with Jell-O,” he said.

“”I will not get into the partisan sniping that I heard earlier [from Obama], but I can tell you there was every effort to avoid the real [budget] cuts we need to make to preserve the fiscal authority of the country … [and to preserve] and the entitlement programs,” he said.”

I think that sums up where we are now.  The Republicans have been put in a position where they are expected to negotiate with themselves.  That is never a good place to be.  The question is whether or not the words of the President last night will cause a panic in the financial markets on Monday morning.  If that is the case, we have another example of creating a crisis with the idea of using it to put forth a plan that otherwise would be unacceptable.