What is it with me and 4am?

If the Beltway chatterers thought the "professional liberal left" was on Obama's case before, they'd better look out for the average amateur progs. Time for whomever is running the administration's show to open up their eyes. A few good reads here:

Obama's Choices: Big Weeks Ahead (Mike Lux)

The next couple of news cycles will be dominated by the deficit commission report, the attempts by Bowles and Simpson to round up votes on the commission for it, and the Obama administration's reaction to it. The way Obama reacts to this, in particular, will be one of the most consequential and politically significant early signs of which path the administration wants to take going forward.

Abdicating to the Right: The Ascendant American Aristocracy (Kathleen Reardon)

The Republican Party has staked out a position where anything to the left of extreme selfishness is on the slippery slope to socialism. But it hasn't occurred to Democrats to counter with the more real scenario of creeping aristocracy.

Obama's Naivete on Bipartisanship Has Finally Caught Up to Him (Howard Fineman)

There were some, including some in the media, who listened to President Obama's account of yesterday's meeting with Republicans and concluded that there was hope for a surprisingly bipartisan conclusion to the lame duck Congress. My questions are: What planet do he and they think they are on? And have they paid any attention to Sen. Mitch McConnell?

[note from me: I don't think his political naivete is the problem, though, since I've got ZERO political experience and can plainly see what Fineman observes - otherwise agreed.]

Why Exactly Is President Obama Acting Like George McFly? (Bob Cesca, with political commentary Griffin might be interested in)

[B]ipartisan cooperation in this era has been entirely redefined to the point of virtual extinction. There's no such thing as mutual cooperation between both parties. Modern bipartisanship is all about one party, the Democrats, flailing around and desperately struggling to appease the Republicans who return the favor by smacking the textbooks out of the president's hands then kicking him in the ass while he picks up his crap off the floor -- embarrassed and chuckling while muttering, "Oh, you guys."

The Big Economic Story, and Why Obama Isn't Telling It (Robert Reich)

Quiz: What's responsible for the lousy economy most Americans continue to wallow in?

A. Big government, bureaucrats, and the cultural and intellectual elites who back them.

B. Big business, Wall Street, and the powerful and privileged who represent them...

...B is closer to the truth. But A is the story Republicans and right-wingers tell. It's a dangerous story because it deflects attention from the real problem and makes it harder for America to focus on the real solution -- which is more widely shared prosperity.

Same words, different meaning: the bipartisanship gap between the GOP and Obama (Michael Maslansky)

The president [is] speaking to a more hopeful strain of political thought - that through discussion and compromise, the best ideas will often rise to the top. (Not coincidentally, this language is very consistent with the language he used as a candidate in 2008. It is fairly distinct from the language he has used for much of his first two years in office, where partisanship has been more the rule than the exception.)

While the language used by both sides appears similar, the implications are very different: Republicans concede common ground, but make difference a main point. Obama concedes difference, but makes common ground his main point.

Ted Strickland: Democrats Suffering From 'Intellectual Elitism'

Talking, unprompted, about the debate over the expiring Bush tax cuts, Strickland said he was dumbfounded at the party's inability to sell the idea that the rates for the wealthy should be allowed to expire.