“The president is not going to negotiate with himself,” White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer insisted last week. As Tom Friedman, the New York Times’ Maestro of Mixed Metaphors, might put it, it’s hardball time, the clock is ticking, and the GOP had better come to the table before we go over the fiscal cliff.

The good news for the Republicans is that President Obama is probably overinterpreting his “mandate.” The bad news is, as Obama has shown over the last four years, he’s willing to work his will unilaterally and has nearly unprecedented powers to do so. Never mind “negotiating with himself”; increasingly, this president won’t even negotiate with Congress.