"With this move the GOP has handed Obama a huge victory. We get to go over the cliff and he gets his huge tax increases and cuts in defense sepnding. As a result we go into recession that he can blame on the recalcitrant Republican who wouldn’t raise taxes on millionaires. Nice work fellas!"
Sigh. If you paid any attention to what was really going on, you would realize that the Obamamedia was already gearing up in full gear to attack Plan B. Plan B wasn't a brilliant strategy move to catch an unwary Obama and the Dems off-guard, but a disguised "Right-wing wish-list" designed to "cut food stamps for the poor" and "raise taxes on the middle class", etc....
And after Obama would've repeated these talking points a billion times (without any counter-response from the GOP), the low-information crowd would be right in his corner. Stop being so naive.
Discussing bringing it to a vote and then failing is a disaster and to think it’s not is incredibly naive. Here’s part of the conventional wisdom making the rounds today (from Rich Lowry and NR)
A couple of more points:
1) The political advantage of Plan B was that it could have shifted the focus to Senate Democrats and at least set them up to take some more of the blame if we go over the cliff. Now Republicans will be even more vulnerable to getting blamed.
2) If part of what President Obama was after was Republican humiliation and disarray, it’s going better than even he could have hoped.
3) It’s possible to envision a scenario where, in theory, going over the cliff enhances GOP leverage. But the emphasis is on in theory. As soon as we go over the cliff, Senate Republicans will almost certainly start peeling off and House Republicans will be even more isolated. Then, they will likely see defections in their own ranks, too, and buckle in a pell-mell retreat.
4) Boehner is in an intolerable position. Either he has the confidence of his conference or he doesn’t. It was a risk to announce Plan B before he knew he had the votes. But if his members don’t have his back in such a high-stakes situation, well then, something eventually has to give.
5) The GOP leadership seemed united on this one, but there’s nothing like a debacle to create an every-man-for-himself dynamic. I wouldn’t be surprised to see tensions begin to emerge between the camps of Speaker Boehner and Whip Kevin McCarthy.