President Obama told CNBC that while political gridlock is nothing new, “this time I think Wall Street should be concerned.”

Said Obama: “When you have a situation in which a faction is willing to default on U.S. obligations, then we are in trouble.”

He added: “I am exasperated with the idea that unless I say that 20 million people, ‘you can’t have health insurance, they will not reopen the government.’ That is irresponsible. If we get into the habit where one party is allowed to extort, … then any president who comes after me we be unable to govern effectively.”

“In the hours since the government shut down, House Republicans have slowly but steadily been coming forward to say they’re ready to pass a bill to fund the government with no strings attached,” Huffington Post reports.

“As of Wednesday afternoon, the number of those Republicans hit 18 — surpassing the magic 17 votes needed to pass a clean funding bill if all 200 Democrats stick together and team up with them. Of course, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) would have to be willing to put that bill on the floor in the first place. But if he did, the votes appear to be there for passage, at which point the bill would sail through the Senate and be signed by President Barack Obama, ending the shutdown.”

“Cruz said he would deliver the votes and he didn’t deliver any Democratic votes. He pushed House Republicans into traffic and wandered away.”

— Grover Norquist, in an interview with Ezra Klein, saying Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) got in the way of House Republicans in dealing with government funding.

Jonathan Chait: “Boehner does not seem to share his party’s sociopathic embrace of hostage tactics. Boehner resembles William H. Macy’s character in Fargo, who concocts a simple plan to have his wife kidnapped and skim the proceeds, failing to think a step forward about what happens once she’s actually seized by violent criminals. He doesn’t intend for her to be harmed, but also has no ability to control the plan once he’s set it in motion. In the end, Boehner’s Speakership is likely to end up in the wood chipper, anyway.”

Robert Costa explains the latest GOP thinking over at Reddit:

“Most of the conference is well aware of the consequences of default. In fact, over the past few years, the House GOP leadership has actually hosted private meetings for members about what default means and why it shouldn’t happen. But, at the same time, Republicans are very eager to get some kind of 2011-esque concession from the White House and Senate Democrats on the budget, when they were able to pass legislation that led to sequestration. Of course, the political climate then was different, due to the GOP having recently won the House, but the GOP is hoping for a similar outcome this time, and you have leaders like Paul Ryan publicly talking about a larger agreement being possible. I’m still skeptical though, since most Republicans are unwilling, at all, to bend on taxes, and Democrats aren’t exactly scrambling to cut a big deal with Boehner, who they think is in a weakened position.”

“There’s a reason for their optimism, even if it is eventually proven to be unrealistic optimism. They look back at 2011 (think Woodward, Price of Politics) and they were able to get sequestration. They think, if they play their cards right, they can do the same w/ CR and debt limit this month. But the prob is that 2011 was a different political climate than fall 2013; GOP had just won House, Obama was on ropes. Now, instead of being in constant talks w/ WH a la 2011, the GOP civil war is a public spectacle, which hurts their ability to make similar fiscal demands.”

Jon Stewart is having too much fun with the government shutdown.

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Patrick Reis:
“You can believe that Republicans forced a shutdown by taking the
government hostage to muscle through changes they couldn’t get through
regular order. Or you can blame Democrats for refusing to make any
changes whatsoever to Obamacare in exchange for keeping the government
open. But you can’t blame them both.”

First Read: “But once you dig in, it becomes harder and harder to get yourself out of the hole. In other words, we THINK we know how this is going to end — with Republicans, due to all the political pressure they’re receiving, mostly capitulating on their demands to link government operations to the president’s health-care law — but it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Why? Because Republicans don’t know how to get out of the hole right now. They can’t surrender without getting something for this shutdown, right?”

Meanwhile, Reid Wilson surveys the editorial pages and finds the “overwhelming number of editorial boards came to the same conclusion: That Republicans — specifically the tea party caucus — are to blame” for the government shutdown.

The Week: How the government shutdown is tearing apart the Republican party.

A new National Journal poll finds a plurality of Americans believes that causing political problems for President Obama is now the GOP’s top priority in Washington.

Key findings: 32% said the GOP’s highest priority was “causing political problems for President Obama.” By contrast, 19% said Democrats’ highest priority was “causing political problems for Republicans in Congress.”