What happened to leadership in this country?

What happened to the day when strong leadership was worth more than political survival?

When Socrates would submit to mob justice and drink hemlock rather than mislead the youth; when President Lincoln was willing to risk the Union and personal safety to stand up for principle.

Let there be no mistake here. The so-called deal on the debt ceiling did absolutely nothing to reduce our country's monstrous debt or craft a framework for fiscal responsibility going forward.

The politicians know it, and the American people can sense it.

Essentially what happened is that the parties agreed in principal to a set of spending reductions, but failed to specify what would be cut or to enact even a blanket spending plan reduction into law.

Instead, they essentially referred the matter back to committee. But while the American people got the short end of the stick, the politicians got exactly what they wanted.

President Obama got to go into the election cycle with a story to tell about his newfound fiscal conservatism.

And Congress got to go back to their districts and say that at least they did not cave on revenue increases.