Tax Cut Compromise Leaves Ardent Obama Supporters Disillusioned

You said:

I fail to see how one negotiates with the rules in the Senate obsolete, and the solidarity of Republican­s. The President has nothing to negotiate with

You conflated the two.

As you should.  Because there is nothing that happens in either chamber of Congress that Obama hasn't signed off on, much less didn't order.  

That's how 'party government­', which we've had since the 1790s, works.  When your party controls both Houses of Congress and the White House, the president is the leader of the party, the goals to be achieved and the strategy for making it happen.  The orders are top-down, and the strategy for achieving the party's aims is determined in the White House.  

The office of the president, particular­ly a popular one, one who entered the Oval Office on a campaign of CHANGE and with more votes than any president in all of US history, has awesome power to effect his agenda.  The fact that Obama slammed on the brakes of his momentous victory and reneged on just about every pledge and promise, and then has continued just about all of the Bush-Chene­y policies says it all -- The man is a con artist.  
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