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Fiscal Cliff: Obama finally getting the hang of this presidency thingee

Every day, I grow more amazed at how what seemed like kind of a nothing presidential election (Clinton-Dole in '96 was my role model) may bring about more radical change than anyone could have ever predicted. Take the Fiscal Cliff (pictured above). Do you remember what President Obama and his fellow travelers in the Democratic Party used to be like? Do you remember the debt ceiling fiasco of 2011 (which seems like it was only last year)? Remember how their idea of a "negotiation" was to start -- start! -- with the compromise, so that when the Party of No said "no" (as they always do), they had to move to the political right to get anything.

Today, Team Obama came in with their opening gambit on the fiscal cliff -- and it was a political left hook. So now Drudge is highlighting how Mitch McConnell "laughed," but you know he was crying inside, because it only took 46 months or so, but Barack Obama has finally learned how to negotiate. So now it's the Republicans who will have to dance to the center or, seeing as they lost that election and all, maybe even (gulp) the center-left. Ditto with Susan Rice -- pre-2012-election Obama would have dropped her like a hot potato, in the same way that Shirley Sherrod was pushedbecause Glenn Beck was going to say nbad things about her, But now, as James Carville would say it, they're stickin'.

The days of Mammoth Cave may be over.

Amazing. Apparently winning the popular vote in four out of five presidential elections -- which is where things stood at this time four years ago -- didn't convince the Democrats that America is a center-left nation. But winning 5 out of 6 -- that finally emboldened them!

Go figure.

Chew on this over the weekend and I'll see you on Sunday.