A new Pew Research poll finds that when it comes to the reaching an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff, 55% say President Obama is making a serious effort to work with Republicans. But just 32% say Republican leaders are making a serious effort to work with Obama on a deficit deal.

Also interesting: Obama’s first post-reelection job approval rating has risen to 55%, up five points since July and 11 points since the start of the year. His job rating is markedly higher than President George W. Bush’s first job measure (48%) after he won reelection in 2004.

In contrast, just 25% approve of the way Republican leaders in Congress are doing
their jobs, while 40% approve of Democratic leaders’ job performance.

Vice President Joe Biden “walked the halls of Congress and hosted top-level talks at Blair House during the last fiscal showdown. This time, he’s roaming the aisles of Costco,” Politico notes.

“It’s a stark shift in responsibilities for the vice president, who has been asked to hold off — for now — on leveraging his Capitol Hill connections and to leave the negotiating to his boss.”

“Biden’s new role is a product of President Barack Obama’s decision to streamline fiscal cliff negotiations between himself and House Speaker John Boehner, the two sides’ clear sticking points and Obama’s increased post-election political clout.”

Associated Press: “Republicans still aren’t budging on Obama’s demands for higher tax rates on upper bracket earners, despite the president’s convincing election victory and opinion polls showing support for the idea.”

“Democrats in turn are now resisting steps, such as raising the eligibility age for Medicare, that they were willing to consider just a year and a half ago, when Obama’s chief Republican adversary, House Speaker John Boehner, was in a better tactical position.”

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds nearly two-thirds of Americans say they favor a balanced deal to reduce the deficit — consisting of both higher tax rates and cuts to key entitlement programs.

Key findings: 65% say congressional leaders should make compromises to deal with the budget deficit, even if that means Democrats would need to accept targeted spending cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and that Republicans would need to accept targeted increases in tax rates.

That includes 68% of Democrats, 66% of Republicans and 56% of political independents who support this position.

Noam Scheiber says President Obama should let Republicans takes us over the fiscal cliff.

“They will see that they have been completely repudiated by the public in a way that even the election didn’t impress on them. It will, in other words, be as close as you get in politics to a total victory for one side. It will highlight the perils of following one’s base too slavishly, a lesson that will come in handy not just on future fiscal policy fights (there will in all likelihood still be a debt ceiling to raise next year), but, one can imagine, also on an issue like immigration. Which is to say, it’s only by forcing the GOP off the cliff that Obama will find the space he needs to govern.”

Andrew Sullivan: “Unless his strategy permanently embitters them and prompts them to use the debt ceiling – once again – as a cudgel.”

“The president and his allies have taken so many things off the table
the only thing left is the varnish.”

— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by The Hill, on the fiscal cliff negotiations.