US Sen. minority leader Mitch McConnell made a statement today saying that republicans now were leading the agenda and talking points in DC. Sadly, I think he is right. Obama has been too quick to cave in, and now he is just hoping that not that many people are paying attention to the fact that he now is touting the republicans "cut the budget" mantra as his mantra when not that long ago he was trying to more or less justify the Krugman theory, which is that the debt isn't extremely high yet and that we need more spending to stimulate the economy. That was the whole theory behind his stimulus.

But alak and alas, Obama has given up defending that. In fact, it does seem that he now has tried to embrace the republican mantra that now we need to cut the budget. But I can't recall him ever explaining why he has changed his mind.

So that's my criticism of Obama at this point. He gives up too soon. I mean, there are situations where a reasonable person can size up that you are going to lose. But the question then becomes how do you lose, and what do you try to salvage in the loss. Some serious advocacy by Obama for "the right thing" would help to push that kind of agenda for his second term, even if ultimately he was going to lose eventually. But he seems to be accepting loss immediately and abandoning his previous positions, which, in many cases, means his party affiliates. I'm not sure this is his best strategy. He needs to remember that he has a party, and it isn't the republicans.