President Obama makes a deal with the Republicans on extending the Bush tax cuts for all taxpayers, including the wealthy, for two years. It is a complex deal that includes temporarily lowering payroll taxes and extending unemployment benefits, among other things. It still needs to pass the lame duck Congress, so enough Democrats will need to join the Republicans to get it through.

Jennifer Rubin believes that the President sold out the left to make the deal, which she sees as a clear victory for the GOP. I believe she is absolutely correct in that assessment.

Katrina vanden Heuvel is almost ready to abandon the President, asserting that he has abandoned the left. I think she is right, which is why I expect someone from the left will challenge Obama in the Democratic primaries in 2012.

Jay Cost writes about that possibility, and concludes that there is no one that he can see who has the stature to beat Obama for the nomination, but that does not preclude the possibility that he will be challenged by someone who can weaken him during the process, as Pat Buchanan did to George H.W. Bush in 1992.