At this point, Neera Tanden believes, the president finally understood what he was up against. “I think he came in truly trying to be post-partisan,” she said. “I think it took the debt ceiling fight to make him see that they hated him more than they wanted to succeed. It was an irrational deal, driven by their funders.” Two and a half years into his presidency, she said, “he finally realized they would rather kill him than save themselves.”
