http://www.seattlepi.com/connelly/431361_JOEL08.htmlObama: Dealing out his supporters
by JOEL CONNELLY
John F. Kennedy was depicted clad as Superman, bending a weighty steel ingot over his knee, in a 1962 cartoon drawn by Bill Mauldin.
It was inspired by Kennedy's decision to go eyeball-to-eyeball with U.S. Steel and other steel-makers, a confrontation in which he forced Big Steel to roll back an inflationary price hike.
President Obama cuts a less commanding figure after cutting a tax deal with Republicans on Monday. The president's political base was cut out. Obama sold out on a signature 2008 campaign pledge not to extend tax cuts that Bush bestowed on the rich.
He did deal to extend long-term unemployment insurance by 13 months. In exchange for holding jobless benefits hostage, however, Republicans won two more years of high-income tax cuts plus new estate-tax rates that are a Christmas present to plutocrats and their progeny...