Guess Who's Coming To the White House

President Obama had his long-delayed meeting (without dinner) at the White House with Republican congressional leaders today, and I'm sure that the result in finding common ground on issues such as the extension of the Bush tax cuts and extension of unemployment benefits was that the President gave his orders to the White House staff on how to proceed . . . right after John Boehner and Mitch McConnell handed those same orders down to him.

Rumors that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is working on a proposal designed to appease Republicans sound very Chamberlainish. The White House has to choose between compromise or conflict in dealing with Republicans. The President is on the verge of choosing compromise. He will have conflict. Some of it will come from a liberal base once convinced that the President would stand up for their interests. I don't care what pundits like Jonathan Alter says about trying to get along with Republicans or big business, because they have the most power to create the private-sector jobs we need. How is Obama going to get anything he wants if the Republicans demand everything they want? Meanwhile, eight hundred thousand unemployed Americans are about to lose their benefits tonight with no congressional action.

The federal government, swinish as it is, isn't evil. The Senate did pass sweeping food safety regulations in this lame-duck session, and the House finally got around to compensating black farmers for their earlier failures to get federal aid after a court ruling in the farmers' favor. So, there's that.

But it should be more.