WSJ's Noonan: Crisis Is the Obama Way

President Barack Obama won’t meet Republicans half way when it comes to the fiscal cliff, showing that his re-election hasn’t changed him at all, says Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan.

“The election is over, a new era begins — and it looks just like the old one,” she writes. “A crisis is declared. Confusion, frustration, and a more embittered process follow. This is the Obama Way.”

While House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican colleagues would like to make a deal, Obama “wants to beat the other guy,” Noonan says. “You watch and wonder . . . Why is there never a sense with Mr. Obama that he understands the other guys' real position?

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The president would do well for himself and the country to show that he can reach an agreement to forestall the $607 billion of tax increases and spending cuts that will begin Jan 1 without government action, she states.

“It would be heartening to the country to see this, and would impress the world. And the Republicans would like to get it done.” But don’t hold your breath. “It's going to be a long four weeks,” Noonan writes. “Scratch that, it's going to be a long four years.”