He writes, “When we look back on this period a decade or two from now, I think we’ll identify this moment — the president’s decision about how to approach the budget battle of 2012 — as the last real opportunity we had for a gradual bipartisan course correction. That option now seems closed off, and it is up to Republicans to decide if the alternative is to march off the fiscal cliff in order to avoid political risks or to propose a gradual course correction to voters and make the case for why it is sensible, responsible, and essential.” For all our tactical disagreements about how to pursue entitlement reform — and I’m afraid he’s still much too optimistic about public opinion — this bottom-line conclusion seems to me quite correct.