If you look at the individual polls, and filter out the “do you think we should raise taxes on those horrible rich bastards” questions, the answers are a bit more nuanced.

Just as one example in the very first poll listed, question 16, 57 percent support a combination of spending decreases and tax hikes. This is Bartlett’s support for “57 percent favor tax hikes.” In the very next question, when asked whether or not it should be mostly spending cuts, mostly tax hikes, or half and half, spending cuts comes out ahead.

The poll on spending was last November. Obama and the Democrats could have hiked taxes anytime between January 2009 and January 2011. If it was so darn popular, why didn’t they? Why did Obama, while the Democrats still held all the power, extend the Bush rates not only for the middle class, but the rich?

People have to understand, the current debate is not about the economy.

I’ll give you a hint: There’s one answer that consistently explains all of Obama’s wildly varying positions.

I’ll be back, just not as frequently. As you can see, it’s no longer necessary.

The Democrats have not “compromised.” They haven’t moved one damn inch. The last detailed plan they had was Obama’s last budget, and you know how that worked out. Harry Reid just spiked a Republican plan, one that would have raised the debt limit, tabling it instead of letting it come up for a vote. That’s going to make some interesting campaign material for the 20 Democrats who supposedly supported a balanced budget amendment.

For Obama and the Democrats this is not about “saving the country.” They’ve had years to “save the country,” two of them with the Democrats in complete control. Where were the spending cuts? Heck, where were the tax increases? Who was it that extended the Bush tax cuts? President McCain?

This is about 2012. Period. And how to wreck the Republicans by getting them to buy into a Democratic tax increase. The Tea Party almost burned the Democrats to the waterline in the last election, and the Democrats damn well know it. The Senate was saved only by the staggered elections. Obama, right now, would probably lose if the Presidential election were today. So they have to split the Republicans from their conservative base. They need the Republicans to sign on to huge tax increases to have a hope of accomplishing this.

The Democrats are the ones sweating blood. Look at them.

No, this isn’t “Plan Nine from Outer Space”. It’s more like “The Ransom of Red Chief”. You’re surely familiar with the O. Henry classic, aren’t you, TB? Two sleazy con men try to kidnap a kid and wind up getting more than they bargained for. The Tea Party crowd and their Junior Achievement henchmen figured they’d take the economy hostage and now they are about to get Gingriched big time.

Cantor’s dream of stabbing his own Party establishment in the back and stealing the Majority Leadership is over, and after Boehner and McConnell salvage what they can from this disaster they are going to go back to the Tea Party and settle accounts and discipline the children. In 2012, it will be the Minority Leadership, and Cantor won’t have it either.

And what is really pathetic is if these strutting little punks had acted like real men, they might have gotten a much better deal than they’re ever likely to get now. The President knows the budget has to be brought under control, that it is inevitable, that this was the perfect time to do it in a way that he could placate his base by shifting some of the blame to the Republicans. Everybody could have won. The country could have won.

But noooooooooooo, the tough guy, bully boy Cons thought they could pull a fast one and humiliate the President. They figured they could Putsch him around. Now they’re going to have bend over and get spanked as Obama and the Democrats come off as the reasonable, responsible statesmen, willing to compromise and save the nation from economic disaster and the aged and the sick and the military from brutal financial hardship. And the Tea Party comes off as a bunch of irresponsible thugs and whiny cry-babies.

Yeah, you saw it here first, all right. What a fucking rout.