From a reader:

Obama is not doubling down and he is not letting it ride. These are both bets made when you are winning or at least have the odds in your favor.
What Obama is doing utilizing the Martingale betting system. This is a betting system that mistakenly tried to guarantee a winning system for a gambler by doubling the bet following each loss. The thinking was that eventually the gambler would win and recover all his previous losses; any wins would go into his pocket. In reality the exponential growth of the bets would eventually bankrupt the gambler.
This is exactly the path that Obama is leading us. Following each loss he keeps doubling the bet hoping that one win will recoup all he has lost. In the meantime, he is bankrupting the country.
Please withhold my name if you decide to print this.

Hah! I did not know this system had a name. Over ten years ago, some friends and I pooled resources and used this system at roulette. We bet black every time, doubling up whenever we lost, taking profits when we won. It worked the first time and we cleared what was, for us, a real bundle. When we returned to AC, we took a horrible bath very early in the night for precisely the reasons the reader explains.

Not that I condone gambling, of course.