'I've always got hope' How Obama rolled the other side

Several weeks ago, everyone was calling for the President to get involved in this process. The President elected to let Congress hash it out for a while since that is what they were elected to do. Then when the President finally joined the conversation, they said that he was taking over the talks. The President in my opinion has played the Republican party like a fiddle. He knew exactly what he wanted to see happen from the beginning and I believe he will get just what he wanted.

President Obama's third press conference in just over two weeks was less remarkable for what he said than the fact that he showed up.

After months of giving the press a wide berth while urging in vain for Congress to take up the deficit and debt limit debates separately, Obama's sudden, punchy ubiquity is part of a larger series of communications moves that portend his winning the argument, even if he loses the battle.

"The problem is, members of Congress are dug in ideologically into various positions, because they boxed themselves in with previous statements," Obama told reporters on Friday. Now, "It's a matter of Congress doing the right thing."

Obama's smart play earlier this month was refusing requests from lawmakers that he go to Capitol Hill for negotiations. Instead, he summoned them to the White House -- giving himself the home field advantage and the implied role of disgusted headmaster, gathering the faculty for a tedious but necessary staff meeting.

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