What is Obama thinking?

Yet another post urging Obama to show some backbone.

Republican congressional leaders have said they will let all of the Bush tax cuts expire unless the president bows to their demand that the top 3 percent of Americans be included in any tax cut extension.

Obama should call their bluff.

See the whole thing here. It has lots of sound arguments—ethical, econonmic, and political—for standing up to the Republicans.

The real question is why posts like this are even necessary. What's going on in Obama's head that he's not doing this on his own initiative?