The Ryan budget is now officially a catastrophe for the GOP. Was this the White House plan all along

[Swede]

When a mainstream news outlet like Politico publishes a major news story quoting multiple (unnamed) Republicans asserting that the House GOP ignored internal criticism of Paul Ryan's plan to privatize Medicare, we can be sure of at least one thing: The Ryan budget proposal has moved beyond dead-on-arrival status to pure political poison.

Of course, we didn't need the wave of anonymous sources now bravely surfacing to tell us this. It was immediately apparent in the town hall denunciations aimed at Republican congressmen in the aftermath of their vote to pass the Ryan budget, the shocking surge of the Democratic congressional candidate in a heavily conservative New York special election, and even Newt Gingrich's (quickly disavowed) labeling of the plan as "right-wing social engineering." As numerous commentators have pointed out, if anyone should have known better, it was the newly elected Republican legislators who lambasted cuts to Medicare in the Affordable Care Act on their way to victory in 2010. Medicare is the third rail in American politics. Touch it too carelessly and you will get electrocuted.

If we step back and consider how this whole drama played out it is tempting to wonder whether what we have just witnessed is simply an astounding example of Republican overreach -- an unforced error of catastrophic proportions -- or whether clever White House tactics actually shaped the outcome.

http://www.salon.com/news/budget_showdown/index.html?story=/tech/htww/2011/05/23/obama_medicare_suckerpunch

[WingDinger]

1. It is the Obama way. Let your opponent show his panic, and anxiety.

[yodermon]

3. Draw out the crazies/extremists. Rope-a-Dope. Politcal Judo.

Pick a term.

And all of our weeping and gnashing of teeth regarding his Centrism and less-than-liberalism fails to realize that since the crazies have him staked out as a socialist-muslim-kenyan-communist, then they HAVE to run far to the right of his "centrist" positions (e.g. Ryan ends medicare). That's so far out of the mainstream that they'll fall off the cliff. And, they can't even field a coherent candidate.

Now does this mean that Obama will become a liberal dream-boat in his 2nd term? I'd love it but I'm not holding my breath. But, if enough of the country becomes disgusted with the far-right tea-party crazies then we might get the House back. Which goes right back to the OP's point.

[Bandit]

2. You do understand how politics works though....right?

The object to getting what you want is to ask for something way worse so your opposition will be happy to settle for what it is you really want.. Maybe Obama and the Democrats are being played...."Big Time" I expect Obama and the Democrats to make some cuts in both Medicare and Social Security now and tell everyone it could have been so much worse, like the Ryan plan...Sort of what we hear when it comes to voting...It could be so much worse is what we hear...Why don't we ever hear how much better it can be instead of how much worse...Do you want Palin for President?

[Solomon]

4. Well keep hoping.

[DirkGently]

5. Tada. So now, merely slashing benefits will constitute "victory." WHO is being played, again?