The senate democrats are in for a very tough election 2012 and they will very likely loose control of the senate unless things change dramatically. So yes under that sort of pressure you may get a deal Obama would consider ugly, one where more of his democrats give into spending cuts and he is forced to either sign a bill his base hates or veto a bill that has bipartisan support with his only argument being he wants to raise taxes. I can see why he would want to avoid that. I think from a democracy point of view having the ax loom that heavily might force them to get something done and fix these problems everyone and their brother has been acknowledging for years.

Odds are if they punt it again we will have different players next time so maybe we can get some real spending cuts instead of make believe cuts that have to be voted on again to actually take place. We have a debt ceiling to force congress and the president to face these issues even if it is during an election year.