Obama isn’t out of danger in debt-ceiling debate

By E.J. Dionne Jr.,
WashPost
Wednesday, July 13, 6:08 PM

The wounded are especially dangerous fighters. President Obama now occupies the high ground in the debt-ceiling debate, having called the Republicans’ bluff on the debt. He showed that deficit reduction is not now, and never has been, the GOP’s priority. He dare not get overconfident.

After thwarting the deal that House Speaker John Boehner was cooking up with Obama, Rep. Eric Cantor, the majority leader and Boehner’s rival, needs to show he knew what he was doing and recoup political ground. Cantor is likely to present Obama with spending cuts that the president once seemed to endorse as part of a large deal but will have to reject now that the big agreement is dead. There is still a lot of danger out there.

But it’s already clear that history will show that Boehner, the old war horse, was a better political calculator than Cantor, the self-styled “young gun.” Boehner saw an opportunity to make huge cuts in entitlement programs, shake off the severe damage done his party by Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget and ignite a war between Obama and the Democratic base.

(More here.)