Charles Krauthammer criticized the President’s manner in which he was publicly conducting negotiations on a fiscal cliff deal:
I found it astonishing, here he is coming out to speak to the nation at a crucial moment in very delicate negotiations and he comes out there with incredible arrogance. He ridicules the Congress, he spikes the football on the Republicans, he rubs in the fact that they were resisting a raise in rates and he made them do it and of course as always he places himself hovering benignly at an olympian level above the fray were the children are playing in the sandbox and he is asking that everyone be reasonable as if he has just arrived in Washington on a tourist visa.