“At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, “I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?”
“You get nothing,” the president said. “I get that for free.” “
the only way to interpret behavior like this is that obama wanted to go over the cliff all along, and is being a deliberate a-hole just because he thinks he can.
this is not a professional way to negotiate, anyone with any experience negotiating would recognize that behavior like obama’s is stupid to the extreme, you don’t deliberately antagonize your opponent like that (especially if you will be working together in the future)
obama is like many weaklings, when they think they are in a powerful position, they overplay their hand.
Perfect analysis. I now understand why Boehner went home.