A Message from Chaz

Charles Krauthammer sends a message of warning to the GOP to not take the debt limit fight to the cliff.  Arguing that Obama has politically "outmaneuvered" the Republicans, he believes that the GOP needs to forgo a large reform package in order to "call Obama's bluff".  Instead they should opt for a short-term package and then address the reform issues later, putting the burden of failure on the Democrats.

If conservatives really want to get the nation’s spending under control, the only way is to win the presidency. Put the question to the country and let the people decide. To seriously jeopardize the election now in pursuit of a long-term, small-government, Ryan-like reform that is inherently unreachable without control of the White House may be good for the soul. But it could very well wreck the cause.

This seems to be sage advice.  As John Podhoretz reports at Commentary, a recent Quinnipiac poll suggests that if the US defaults on its debt, Republicans will be blamed by a margin of 48-34.  Republicans are right to be angry at the left's intransigence and unwillingness to seriously address our crumbling fiscal condition and are correct in the prescribed medicine of entitlement and tax reform.  Nevertheless, they must not lose perspective of the broader conflict.  It will be impossible to make the needed ideological shifts in our government, if the GOP cannot maintain a position of leadership.