Oh the drama of a speech to Congress that gets rescheduled to accommodate Republicans only to have many of them not show up. One would think it is a sign, but in a Reaganesque move the President is sure there's a pony in that big pile somewhere.
There seems to be little hope that Obama is going to accept the reality -- or seemingly cares -- that the GOP is going to work with him on anything other than moving expenses (and they'll just pull the rug out on that one on January 19, 2013 too). Not allowing government to do anything but protect gated communities and release the predator drones otherwise is their raison d'être. The purpose of government is to show government cannot do anything -- don't take my word for it, take the word of a longtime Republican operative (the one only a few publications and we liberals have written about).
If you think Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand-worshipping colleagues aren't after your Social Security and Medicare, I am here to disabuse you of your naiveté. They will move heaven and earth to force through tax cuts that will so starve the government of revenue that they will be "forced" to make "hard choices" - and that doesn't mean repealing those very same tax cuts, it means cutting the benefits for which you worked.
And the only Democrats that don't seem aware of this (emphasis on seem) are the one's that don't appear to give a damn.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]