My main point here, though, is a political one. Obama no longer sounds like a President who is seeking a “grand bargain” on the budget, and who, to that end, would be willing to enrage seniors and face down members of his own party. He sounds more like a President burned by his previous encounters with the Republicans, who has accepted that, for the foreseeable future, he’s going to be engaged in trench warfare, and so he had better make sure that the sandbags are in place and that the gun turrets are manned.