Good question: Where’s Obama resolve on the budget battle?

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Someone should introduce the Barack Obama who addressed the nation Monday on Libya to the Barack Obama who has been dancing around the edge of the budget fight. 

In his Libya speech, Obama was clear, forceful and principled. Yes, there were some ambiguities but these were dictated by a genuinely uncertain situation on the ground, not by muddled thinking. 

The president made the case for a foreign policy rooted in morality yet also alive to the difficulties of acting wisely in an imperfect world that does not bend easily to one man’s or one country’s will.
On the budget, by contrast, it’s hard to know what the president’s bottom line is, what deals he would regard as reasonable or when he will even join the fray.

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Perhaps Obama has the same fear of quagmires when it comes to the budget fight, but this is not a battle he can avoid. So far, he has been more of a pundit or a distant judge, rendering verdicts from afar on the behavior of the various parties. “Both sides are going to have to sit down and compromise on prudent cuts,” he said a few weeks ago. Well, yes, but isn’t he on a side here? He talks periodically about his priorities, but he hasn’t put any muscle behind those who are actually trying to defend them in the brawl that’s raging at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. 

In his speech on Monday, the president spoke of our obligation “to live the values that we hold so dear.” He’s done a decent job of that in Libya. He needs to do the same closer to home.