Why Won't Obama Take a Short Term Debt Deal?

Well, he thinks he wins this thing no matter what happens (and the press will do their best to make that happen), and he doesn't want this issue to resurface during the 2012 campaign.  Daily Caller has more:

Will the GOP call Obama's bluff? -- That's the big question on the debt-ceiling debate, now that he's shown everybody what a tough guy he is. As Hot Air's Allahpunditasks: "If default would be a catastrophe, why is Obama opposed to a short-term deal that would avert it? ... To put it another way, is there any policy reason why Obama won’t agree to a short-term deal, or is this really as horribly cynical as it looks — that he simply refuses to do anything that might complicate his reelection campaign, even if that means a default by the United States?" As usual, Obama's plan depends on his supporters being ignorant dupes. So far they've come through for him, but that might be changing. TheDC's Neil Munro reports: "President Barack Obama needs a successful end to the debt-ceiling debate more than Republican legislators need a win because of the sour economy, political analysts and advocates say. 'The aspirational goal that Obama set for himself — the grand bargain that would have come closest to fulfilling the upside potential [of a reinvigorated economy] — was never a serious possibility in the current climate,' said Bill Galston, President Bill Clinton’s chief domestic policy adviser. 'Without an economy-boosting grand bargain,' he said, 'the president has to hope that the factors which have slowed economic growth during the first quarter turn out to be transient.' 'He has the most to lose in this debate,' because swing-voting independents already fault him for not improving the economy, said Luke Frans, executive director of Resurgent Republic, a GOP-affiliated polling group. Those voters, he said, are 'skeptical, and on the brink of being negative.'" Yeah, b-b-but... Republicans are mean. And bad! They want you to find your grandma dead on the kitchen floor clutching a licked-clean can of Alpo. They are demons from Hell. Shut up. Shut up! 

The GOP isn't backing down. They're making their case to the American public and not giving up on tax hikes. That's the way it has to be, because the GOP has far more to lose from their own base if they back down.