This week, the feeling crystallized. Clinton aides privately dispute the depth of Clinton's conversion, but differences are narrowing. Republicans polled extensively and decided to embrace Clinton's call for new drug subsidies. Soon thereafter, the Senate will pass a slightly smaller tax cut. Indeed, there's a lot that can go wrong.
Republicans are hungry for a deal, perhaps too hungry.
Clinton must mull the legacy dilemma. From a fiscal point of view, maybe not. To get a deal, Washington would have to agree to fudge the truth. But in legislative politics, just as in negotiating that first date, that happens too.