Eyes On The Prize

Chris Cillizza looks at the road ahead for Obama:

A week from today Obama will convene a fiscal responsibility summit in Washington designed to examine entitlement reform -- perhaps the stickiest wicket of all policy proposals made during the early days of his presidency.

The early timing of this suggests more seriousness. The truth is: the US simply cannot escape the current financial crisis without reassuring global markets of its long-term fiscal footing. That means addressing the huge insolvency looming on entitlements. My own view is that a genuine effort to pull this off will be absolutely central in Obama's hopes for retaining the center of American politics.