simple fact of the matter is obama came with a 250, and saw that raised to 450. that's not a significant hike. right now, republicans are losing in the polls, with the american public overwhelmingly opposed to their position. obama has forced republicans to either vote against this in the house and see tax hikes on every american, or offer SOME relief to the middle class by agreeing to the compromise hammered out between reid and mcconnell. this will alienate an already dejected conservative constituency that continues to withdraw support for the republicans.
we knew that democrats would not get everything they wanted. that's not obama's fault. he didn't cave. the extremism of the republican party made an alternative impossible, sad to say. is this a big win for dems? no, of course not. but this is still a loss for the republicans, and the damage will have significant bearing on their party's ability to hold onto the majority in 2014.
some of you are just like the tea party, pushing an extreme that simply isn't tenable. you take what you can, and you keep moving forward. obama and the dems have just shown that the republicans don't care about the economy. the polls will only show increasing support for obama. it's chess.