Since the historic election last November turning over control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans, within just a 4-month period, Barack Obama has capitulated in the first two major battles over the fiscal crisis in America, a crisis which got the Republicans elected in the first place.  And, Obama will be forced to give in on the next two major gigantic battles, raising (or not) the debt ceiling which is set to expire in July, and to sign into law a budget for the federal government for Fiscal Year 2012 (and spending levels for the next decade.)
 
During December's lame-duck session of Congress, the president was forced to give in to the Republicans  --  even though his party overwhelmingly controlled both chambers in Congress  --  on extending the tax cuts "for the rich" and for everyone else, which caused him to break his 2008 campaign promise to not extend President George W. Bush's massive tax cuts.
 
Just before midnight last Friday night, Obama was forced to surrender to the Republicans yet again by agreeing to a $38.5 billion cut in domestic spending, the largest in American history.  He had begun negotiations with the Republicans by saying he wanted no cuts at all.  Obama was also forced to return to the policy of no federally-funded abortions in Washington D.C. and a restoration of the school choice voucher program for the District of Columbia.
 
The latest evidence that the president has seen the writing on the wall that things have changed in America was the announcement by his senior political advisor, David Plouffe  --  who was on all of the major Sunday morning shows today, including Fox News  --  that Obama will introduce a plan to make some significant cuts in the entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid) which are bankrupting America.
 
When Obama's 2012 budget was introduced earlier this year, he had absolutely no cuts in the major entitlement programs nor did Obama have any solutions to the gargantuan problems being created by these programs.  Then, a political earthquake occurred on Capitol Hill last Tuesday.
 
The chairman of the Budget Committee in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Congressman Paul Ryan from Wisconsin, courageously introduced an historic budget for FY 2012 (and the next decade) which cuts a whopping $6.2 trillion.
 
The "Politico" newspaper on April 5, 2011 summarizes the Ryan Budget as follows:  "The Republican budget is expected to include several major proposals: reduction of the corporate tax rate to 25 percent; elimination of corporate tax loopholes; spending cuts with enforceable caps; reforms to “save critical health and retirement programs”; health reform that “repeals and defunds the president's health care law"; and a promise to restore 'America’s exceptional promise,' according to GOP aides, lawmakers and a draft summary of the budget."

The hopey-changey stuff, in Sarah Palin's words, hasn't worked all that well for the American people during the first two years of the Obama administration.  And the president has seen his future for the next 18 months in his stunning defeat to the Republicans just before midnight last Friday.