President Obama met with Senate Democrats at the White House today to discuss debt limit strategy. Apparently, he his central message something was along the lines of: ‘Don’t commit to anything, keep beating around the bush so it looks like we have a plan’:

President Barack Obama gave marching orders Wednesday to Senate Democrats as negotiations with Republicans over the nation’s long-term debt intensify: don’t draw lines in the sand.
In a meeting at the White House, Obama marshaled the troops and laid out his goals for the ongoing and contentious debate over raising the debt limit, encouraging the senators to avoid tough stances and to keep a united front.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters after the full-caucus gathering that the president warned Democrats to steer clear of the Republican strategy of placing markers on what defines a successful deal, as Speaker of the House John Boehner did in a speech in New York earlier this week.
“The president has said that he believes we have no choice but to work this out,” Reid said. “He in fact told us to not do what the Republicans have done by drawing these lines in the sand. We can’t do that.”

But as it turns out, Obama’s advice was more ‘do as I say…’

Perhaps most notably, Obama rejected the idea of any kind of global spending cap — a plan supported by Republicans and championed by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) — which, unlike a full debt cap, would be pegged exclusively to spending. Many Democrats fear that a spending cap would inordinately affect seniors reliant on Medicare, like Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia who has said it could be “worse” than the House-approved Republican budget.
Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia is the only other Democrat who supports the spending cap bill put forth by McCaskill and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).

So much for that “united front.” Still, it’s great news for the GOP in 2012 if Democrats are so blatantly willing to hang their vulnerable members — Manchin, McCaskill, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, etc. — out to dry rather than seriously commit to cutting spending.

Senate Democrats have been in disarray ever since Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) unveiled what was in all likelihood a semi-serious proposal in line with that of the Bowles-Simpson commission on which Conrad served. Alas, the party’s decidedly unserious left flank cried bloody murder — to which Conrad eventually caved, letting Sen. Bernie Sanders (Socialist, Vt.) call the shots.

Senate Republicans are scheduled to meet with Obama at the White House tomorrow morning.

More here.