Having just come from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Winter’s Tale, I can only say that the folly as well as the venality of what our President is apparently doing can only be called Shakesperean.  To all intents and purposes he is not simply capitulating to, he is actively colluding with the Republicans in their long-held determination to dismantle Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  And Obama is thus also colluding in his own political demise, as well as doing untold damage to the country and the Democratic Party.  It’s one for the ages.