joining me now is dana milbank and ryan grimm, with "the washington post." thank you for showing and coming this evening. dana, let me start with you. can republicans continue to hit obama on fail to lead? >> it's funny, reverend al, because for the first year or so, they were saying that president obama was a dictator, a tie rant that was ramming through all the these reforms in an undemocratic way. this sort of pivoted now to the president is a weak leader. i think the president has finally tan things in the direction of putting legislation out there that he knows the republicans are going to object to, forcing them to knock it down. it's going to force them to take the votes. he's putting himself back in the position of strong leader. he's lost numbers, but he's doing what he needs to do to get that back. >> those of us that are progressive that may question some of this, but let's listen to what some of the republicans have been saying about his leadership and strength. let's look at this. >> america's standing in the world is in peril. not only because

now let'sably the ryan grimm for the "huffington post." speaker bain her give his job speech tomorrow. i want to talk about this possible strategy with the white house pushing for passing portions of. this some within the president's base already stheeg as compromise. in their eyes, whenever the president compromises, he ends up being perceived as the loser here. >> people are predisposed to expect compromise and caving from this white house. whenever anything like this comes out, that's the frame people will see it in. but the president's position is pretty logical when you think about it. if they pass just a pay roll tax cut, on what grounds would the president go ahead and veto that? so all it is is an admission of reality. what they're saying is that if they pass little pieces of it, like say just the extension of pay roll tax cut, or just something to keep teachers employed, or just something to fix up schools or roads, et cetera, then yes, he'll sign that. and he'll keep pushing for more of it down the road. and at the same time, he'