Obama's incompetence in deal making

Jennifer Rubin:

Let’s get this straight: The president can’t make a deal with the speaker of the House on the fiscal cliff. He then punts to the Senate Majority and Minority leaders, but alas Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) can’t even come up with a counteroffer. Reid then punts to Vice President Joe Biden, who presumably is more skilled than the president at this sort of thing. One is tempted to ask what President Obama really does all day.

The answer is neatly summed up by Yuval Levin:

The president’s appearance on Meet the Press [Sunday] was downright pathetic in this regard, as have been his various press statements in the past few days. This sort of preening and lecturing from a politician who has basically just failed to do his job is bizarre.  

Mr. President, you’re going to sign whatever congress ultimately passes, assuming something passes. Sometimes that’s just how it is for a president, any president. Can we not just accept that? And if the fiscal cliff is followed immediately by the next round of debt-ceiling talks, might we just start those with House-Senate negotiations and have them pass a bill and send it down the street like they’re supposed to, rather than go through weeks of pointless private White House drama and public presidential hectoring about how reasonable Barack Obama is compared to everybody else?

... It’s typical of the narcissistic behavior that this president has exhibited these past four years. 

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Bad results are never Obama’s fault; bad things are caused by other people. He is there to remind us he feels more deeply, is more reasonable and is more high minded than the rest of us.

Meanwhile, if we use a mortal standard for rating him and his presidency – say, competence — he doesn’t get a passing grade. At this point every Clinton, Bush or Reagan White House veteran could figure out where the deal is. But if we posit that Obama is anything but dim, then we must conclude Obama either perpetually assumes that his aura will magically melt opposition (his favorite method being a campaign bustrip that only annoys his opponents) or that he never intends to make true compromises (in the case of the fiscal cliff, real entitlement reform). Either way, the result is never a grand or mini-deal. We get no deal and Obama’s scorn for political opponents who won’t take “yes” for an answer. Sanctimony is the operating emotion for this White House.

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She pretty well sums up Obama's approach to "compromise."  He does not understand the concept and can't do it.  While his interview with Meet the Press's David Gregory was supposed to either shift blame or put pressure on Republicans, it failed at both because most people recognize that it takes two to make a deal and he is AWOL.