Mr. President: Stand Your Ground

President Obama ran on eliminating Bush tax cuts for the rich, and not cutting back the safety net. The vast majority of the electorate agrees with this. However, progressives are already concerned that the President will cave in to Congressional Republicans as he did in his first term - keep the tax cuts for the rich - or sell out to the so called moderate Third Way - gut Social Security and Medicare. Caving in last term led to such disillusionment that the base did not vote in 2010. That did not work out too well, leading to election of crazy tea partiers.

Now there is a "mandate" to stand tough. Call the Republican's bluff, play chicken. Going over "fiscal cliff" trumps caving to a bad agreement.
Caving again will stain Obama's legacy, ruin our economy for many years to come, and irreparably anger the Democraticic base the majority of the public