Obama to Call for Broad Plan to Reduce Debt - Jackie Calmes

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/us/politics/11deficit.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

In a speech to be delivered at a university here on Wednesday, Mr. Obama will in effect come off the sidelines on the debate over reducing the nation’s debt, which is reaching dangerous heights as the population ages.
After months of criticism that he has not led on budget talks, Mr. Obama will urge bipartisan negotiations toward a multiyear debt-reduction plan that administration officials said would depart sharply from the one proposed last week by House Republicans.

This president has an uncanny knack for emerging from the fray at just the right moment. While one can argue, convincingly, that it is a failure to lead, it can also be seen as a tactic in an age of fragmented media. Obama seems to appear out of nowhere just as the story crests in the public mind. The casual political observer knows only that the government was about to shut down, the Ryan budget had something to do with this, the shutdown was averted, and Obama appears with a budget to counterweight the one that the casual observer assumes shut the government down. Entitlement programs are to be pared, but taxes are held out as an option.
I do not think there was necessarily a "winner" in the aftermath of the budget showdown this weekend. The post-conflict maneuvering by the president could change that.