Brit Hume: Bin Laden Won't Save Obama

Brit's a pretty savvy political analyst and he sees trouble ahead for Obama if he doesn't get serious about the debt and annual deficits:

“If the president were to get behind a program like Paul Ryan’s or his own bipartisan debt commission, there would be a revolt within his own ranks,” Hume said. “People don’t understand how deeply Democrats believe in these programs and think they’re growth is a good thing. It should be encouraged and you ought to raise taxes and cut defense to pay for it. That’s what they believe.”

Hume said this isn’t the kind of disagreement that would be resolved easily.

“This is the deepest fault line – one of the deepest fault lines in American politics we’re talking about here and to expect that everybody would easily come to agreement – that seems to me is naïve,” Hume said. “It’s not to say that it won’t happen. I think President Obama probably recognizes it.”

If it isn’t resolved, Hume said it could mean a failed reelection bid for the president — even with what many see as a weak GOP primary field.

“If he goes into the 2012 election and nothing serious has been done about the debt – that would deepen his political predicament, which I think by the way, looking at it from here is very serious,” he continued. “He’s in real trouble. Everyone is saying, ‘Well, look at the Republican field.’ I think this will be a referendum election and not so much a choice election. And if it is and conditions like this persist – he’s toast.”

Obama can oppose his own side anytime he wants and get away unscathed. Even signing on to Paul Ryan's budget plan wouldn't lose him significant support from the Dem base. They'd stomp their feet and threaten to hold their breath until they turned blue, but they wouldn't run a primary opponent against him and they certainly wouldn't vote for a Republican. They'd be too afraid someone would think they're racist for failing to support The One.

However, Obama is such a liberal ideologue I don't think he has it in him to seriously cut government even if it meant saving his job.  He's as much a true believer in ever larger government it would take a "Road to Damascus" kind of conversion to make him see the error of his political ways.