Heh. Some "fox". More like the gift that keeps on giving to a Republican opposition which was given up for dead after the 2008 election. A tougher Democratic politician would have taken the latest tax cut issue and run with it. It makes political and fiscal sense. The surest indication that it was a winning issue is how eagerly and uncharacteristically the Republicans, not least tea party champion Jim DeMint, have leapt at Obama's offer to compromise.
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You write as though the RP & the DP were two professional sports team, and they had nothing to do but compete with each other in an arena sealed off from the rest of the world. This is a really foolish way to understand politics. Whether a given policy will win or lose in that sealed-off arena is not and never has been the only or even the major consideration of top political leadership of either party.
Carrol