President Obama seeks to secure his 2012 defeat. (Special Op/Ed)

President Obama announced to the White House Press Corp this morning that he is urging Democrats in Congress to cave in to the tyranny of the minority and agree to extend the Bush Tax Cuts for the Top 2% for two more years (ie: the year he leaves office) in exchange for a one-year extension in unemployment benefits... an extension that Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell ALREADY said on "Meet the Press" last Sunday they intend to do anyway. A "two year extension" might as well be a "permanent" extension because when he is replaced with a Republican in 2013, that president is going to make those tax cuts permanent anyway. Now I'm not saying "Obama will be a one-term president if this passes 'because I won't vote for him'" or anything childish like that. No, I'm citing a demonstrable fact. And here's why:

"Repealing the Bush Tax Cuts for the top 2%" was a key plank in candidate Obama's presidential platform. He brought it up so often, I'd argue it was in the top three issues of his campaign. Just listen to him in this video on just how important repealing those tax cuts were to reviving the economy, and how passing them was (quote) "a failure of leadership":

(video) Obama blames Recession on Tax Cuts

I sent the White House the following e-mail:

I have NEVER seen such an incompetently negotiated policy issue such as this. Senate Minority Leader McConnell *already* said on Meet the Press this past Sunday that he expected Congress to approve an extension of unemployment benefits. They KNOW can't NOT extend benefits or come January, voters will turn on them. So bargaining away budget-busting tax cuts in exchange for something Republicans have already said they intend to pass is no "compromise". And what do Democrats get in return? And explosion in the size of the Deficit that Teabaggers will blame *President Obama* for.

...

...

Instead, come 2012, Republicans will be able to tell voters how they “stood up to the White House and passed tax cuts for everyone“, and when someone points out how much bigger the National Debt is because of it, they’ll blame President Obama for “not cutting spending”… even though they themselves can’t name a single thing they’d cut. ...