I'll do anything... except the one thing you want me to do

President Obama had admitted that the results of this week's elections were bad for him - a "shellacking" is the term he used. Clearly, the nation wants a change in course from the last 2 years, and has handed the reins of the House to the Republicans. But with a divided Congress, compromise and negotiation will be critical. So, what is the president's idea to start negotiations?

To take the one thing Republicans are sure to want off of the table completely.

"At a time when we are going to ask folks across the board to make such difficult sacrifices, I don’t see how we can afford to borrow an additional $700 billion from other countries to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans," the president said. "We’d be digging ourselves into an even deeper fiscal hole and passing the burden on to our children."

Obama noted the importance of extending the tax cuts in the lame-duck session, but focused the address on digging in against the full extension sought by Republicans and some Democrats.

Well, clearly the president is eager to take back the "Party of No" label he had previously stuck onto the GOP. Unfortunately for him, I get the sense that many Democratic congresspeople are more ready to compromise in order to win back the electorate.