Tax Deal...DONE! Let's Move This Country Forward!

It's taken two years, but President Obama and Congressional Republicans may finally have found something they can agree on. Over the weekend, the contours of a deal on taxes emerged, and Obama announced details of the compromise Monday evening. The existing tax rates on income and investments will stay where they are for the next two years, rather than rise on January 1. In return, President Obama won a bunch of concessions on short-term fiscal stimulus.

To a large degree, the deal represents a shift in strategy and tactics by the White House. But this isn't a sign of Obama tacking to the center, or even triangulating between Democrats and Republicans. It's a sign of Obama tacking toward reality. For the past two years, Obama & Co. had wagered that simply governing, proposing, and enacting solutions to long-term problems (health care, the bankruptcy of most of the domestic auto industry and financial sector) and presiding over incremental improvements from the horrible situation they inherited would be sufficient to maintain popularity and prospects for re-election. That theory came apart with the big losses in November.

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