David Brooks finally realizes the truth about himself.

President Obama, facing a potential challenge from the liberal base of his own party, has decided to embark on a course of political confrontation with the GOP by proposing a plan that refuses to trim entitlement benefits unless they are accompanied by tax increases on "the rich" (I put that in quotation marks because the definition is fungible). I happen to believe that this is his only hope for winning re-election, although it will make it impossible for him to get anything substantive passed through Congress for the remainder of his first term. This new rhetoric will fire up his base, as indicated by this column from Eugene Robinson and this one from Dana Milbank. But the real key, and his only real hope, is that this rhetoric can convince white, working class Americans in sufficient numbers to support him who right now seem not inclined to do so. If, on the other hand, those voters believe the editors of The Wall Street Journal when they say that "the rich" are already paying their "fair share" and, more importantly to them, any renewed effort by the federal government to get more taxes will inevitably snare the middle-class, then Obama is still electorally doomed. (As an aside, for those of you who believe that most white, working-class Americans do not read The Wall Street Journal, I concede the point. However, many of those Americans do listen to Rush Limbaugh, or watch Hannity or O'Reilly on TV. Those gentlemen agree with the editors of the Journal, and they hammer at those points nearly every day).

Meanwhile, over in Europe, people are coming to grips with the various scenarios surrounding a possible Greek default.

One such scenario results in the end of the European Project. Bret Stephens sees that as the inevitable outcome.

Finally, this article from John Judis in The New Republic is a reminder that there are still quite a few Keynesian true believers out there, convinced that the only way out of the Great Recession is massive government spending.