Maybe courting independents doesn't mean giving Republicans everything they want, after all.

Duh.

51 percent of Dem-leaning independents want him [Obama] to more aggressively confront the GOP.

Dem-leaning independents are the ones it’s crucial Obama not lose. As Alan Abramowitz noted the other day, there’s a myth out there that holds that independents are a bloc of free-floating, wholly independent voters. Rther [sic], they mostly lean towards one party or the other.

The GOP is less popular than the Democratic Party and the President, so I never understood how giving in to them -- or even appearing to -- was smart politics.

Generally speaking, letting miserably unpopular people who tout miserably unpopular policies set the agenda is a bad plan. But what do I know?

PS.
John Kerry won independents in 2004. How'd that turn out again?