From the Washington Post article Joe linked to earlier. The quote below talks about how much it benefits the President if a "grand bargain" on deficit reduction is reached:
“It benefits him politically a great deal if there’s a big deal,” said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy and a co-founder of Third Way, a left-leaning group that has been supporting an ambitious plan. “The deficit favors Republicans. But if it seems like it’s been solved, then you take away one of the biggest Republican issues and at worst you neutralize it and at best you win it.”Just because it's the GOP's top priority doesn't make it the public's. Come next election, in November of 2012, families across America aren't going to vote based on how well we've reined in the deficit. They're going to vote based on how well the economy is doing - how well their own families are doing - the same thing they voted on last time.
