Check.

Some see it as a capitulation.  Others have called it a betrayal.  Still others see it as a gesture of conciliation.

But Barack Obama's sudden, overnight, sharp move to the center could be one of the most brilliant political moves of a generation. 

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, long silent in their own catastrophic collapses to the demands of their opposing counterparts, suddenly issue statements that the deal Obama struck will have to be re-negotiated.  They will not stand for this sort of thing.

Where, once, they hid behind the tall figure that Obama casts across the American political consciousness, they were now, for once, standing on their own.  They will have nothing of the sort.  They are going to take a stand.

No one who has followed the President's career would ever think he is sanguine in his support for across-the-board tax cuts.  Not a one.  Perhaps that is why this has raised so many eyebrows and has so many strategists scratching their heads.  But perhaps, just perhaps, this was a political move designed to switch places with the Democratic Congressional leadership.  Perhaps this was intended to force them from behind Obama -- a place from which they could distance themselves from the President, fade political heat from the Right, and blame him for their own failures to act.

If so, this was one of the most brilliant political moves in a generation.

Obama has made his move and the chessboard is set.  Their move.

Check.