Obama MUST Shut Down The Government...

...in order to survive. That's the conclusion he's drawn, either by taking the wrong lessons from 1994 or by reading some new, secret polling that might have come in overnight claiming the American people will blame the Republicans for a government shutdown. Thus he released the following statement within the last hour, declaring he will veto a continuing resolution that dares to cut spending:

The Administration will continue to work with the Congress to arrive at a compromise that will fund the Government for the remainder of the fiscal year in a way that does not undermine future growth and job creation and that averts a costly Government shutdown. It is critical that the Congress send a final bill to the President’s desk that provides certainty to our men and women in military uniform, their families, small businesses, homeowners, taxpayers, and all Americans. H.R. 1363 simply delays that critical final outcome.

If presented with this bill, the President will veto it.

Why this sudden rage, after all of Obama's happy talk about working out a deal? Possibly because it bans taxpayer-funded abortions in Washington, D.C. - and the right to kill the unborn is so paramount to the Union that Obama is prepared to shut the entire government down in order to protect it. But if that's true, Obama is not saying so, as Boehner rightfully points out:

“I have just been informed that the White House has issued a veto threat on a bill that would keep the government from shutting down, without stating a single policy justification for President Obama’s threatened veto. Neither the President nor Senate Democrats have identified a single policy provision they find objectionable in the bill....

Or maybe abortion is just an excuse. Obama's on the ropes, and everyone knows it. He needs help from the Republicans if he's going to win in 2012, so he's trying to point their guns at their own feet. Doubtless he believed that Paul Ryan's budget plan would help give him an easy target, but the plan has earned grudging praise from the Left, possibly more than Obama expected, while many of its critics (Nancy Pelosi) have been roundly mocked. So in a panic, Obama will go back on his word, and do everything in his power to force a shutdown, in the hopes that he, personally, can capitalize on it.

While we "suffer". Of course, once Obama realizes we aren't suffering, that we don't need government as much as he wants us to believe, and that folks start shifting the blame over to him, why, he'll sign a continuing resolution ASAP. And claim all the while, Charlie Sheen-style, that he's winning.

What? Not the change you had been hoping for?