Conceding Before You Start

This is from a few days back but I really like this post from Jon Chait entitled "I Want to Play Poker Against President Obama."

It seems to those of us who see no point in even paying attention to Republican ideas as a worthless venture by the president to routinely compromise with them.  It's even more absurd, even for a moderate Democrat like myself, to see the president routinely concede issue after issue to people who have no intention of ever compromising in the first place.

Democrats negotiated away a much smaller stimulus package than what was needed to jump start the economy filled with the largest tax cuts in history.  Democrats lost the public option due to what was at the time an anemic Republican minority in Congress.  Democrats lost the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.  So it's common fodder for Dems to view the president as not standing firm enough on our issues.  I think it's a very fair assessment by Dems and one the president is eventually going to have to reconcile.  Sometimes I have to wonder if the president thinks his mere presence alone is enough to please people.  It really doesn't do much for me if that's the case.