Obama's Brilliant Head Fake

Dueling national addresses are always about contrasts, and Barack Obama got his tonight facing Republican House Speaker John Boehner on the topic of default and the national debt. And he did it through a head fake that the GOP completely fell for.

Earlier this afternoon, the White House signaled its support for a debt reduction plan floated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- a plan that would raise the debt ceiling, lop trillions off the deficit, and all without raising taxes.

Thinking that this was the plan the President was going to embrace in his address tonight, Speaker Boehner's political advisors cooked up a heated speech for their patron, one that they thought would create the right contrast between the GOP plan and the one backed by Leader Reid. Between two plans that would ostensibly cut the same amount from the deficit (roughly two to three trillion dollars in the coming years), the side that could sell better would win.

Except President Obama didn't try to sell the Reid plan tonight. Instead, he spoke of a larger plan -- the plan he has been pushing for over the course of the last several weeks. The President, in measured tones, firmly placed himself to the right of Republicans on the deficit, calling for more than one trillion dollars more in deficit reduction than the GOP. And he did so in a manner that came off as reasonable and bipartisan.

So while John Boehner thought he had the contrast he wanted tonight, delivering an impassioned (if excessively echoed) address backing the GOP's debt plan, it was Barack Obama who again outmaneuvered his Republican adversaries, outflanking them on deficit reduction and appearing like the most reasonable man in the room. That's not only good for the President in the next week of debt dealing -- it's good for him in his bid for another four years at the helm of the nation.