WASHINGTON - President Obama cancelled a Washington, D.C. fundraiser last night to make a prime-time television address.

Problem is, the President apparently used the same speech he prepared for the DNC event to address the nation's looming debt-ceiling crisis.

It was his last chance to show real leadership on the issue.

But instead of seizing the opportunity to define a bold plan of his own that would take into consideration the key principles of cut, cap and balance -- the only solution that has actually passed a legislative body – he reverted to what he knows best: political rhetoric and empty poll-tested narrative.

His remarks -- perhaps the most lacking of his tenure -- were devoid of any real solutions, while chock-full of vernacular balderdash.

But the speech was revealing in more ways than one. It opened a window to this President's mindset.

Given a chance to lead last night, the President punted. In so doing, Obama demonstrated once again his comfort level lies not in that of a statesman, but in the body politic of a Chicago alderman.

He talked of compromise, but offered none. He heralded leadership, yet showed none. He lauded working together, and instead used his last card to play the class warfare blame game, while attempting to scare seniors by threatening their entitlements in the process.

In a time of widespread economic apprehension, Obama's speech was pure blatant political demagoguery at it's worst.

Theoretically, Obama threw his support behind senate majority leader Harry Reid’s proposal in the Senate, while stepping short of unequivocally threatening to veto a short-term debt-ceiling increase. He knows Reid's plan is DOA in the House, and may not even muster the necessary 50 votes needed in the Senate. So he told us what many suspected all along: he has no plan, and he's using the August 2 deadline to re-define his sagging poll numbers, at the expense of the rest of us.

His obsession with finding a debt increase solution that goes through the next election-cycle had nothing to do with sound policy and everything to do with his blind desire to hang onto power. If he really believed his own hyperbole about the risks of default he could have offered a short-term plan, and then recommended everyone get back to the table to solve this later. But he reads the polls, and he knows that if increasing the debt ceiling without cut, cap and balance becomes a campaign issue in the next cycle he's staring at a one-term presidency.

Juxtapose this to President Lincoln. When told by political aides in August 1864 he was losing badly to Democrat presidential nominee George McClellan, and that he had to rescind the Emancipation Act to win re-election, he responded by promptly throwing them out of his office. "I'm here to do what's right," Lincoln reportedly said, "not what is personally expedient. I lead a nation, not a political party."

The grand irony of Obama's address came when he invoked Ronald Reagan. It was a cynical attempt to wrap himself around a predecessor he has absolutely nothing in common with. When the Soviets shot down a harmless Korean commercial airliner that inadvertently entered their airspace, Reagan got on television the next day and called them "an evil empire." It worked because most Americans knew deep down the "Gipper" was right.

When faced with this domestic crisis, Obama made up his own bogeymen: GOP House freshman – along with "billionaires and millionaires."

Unlike Reagan's "evil empire" depiction of the USSR, Obama's attempt to define a band of GOP House freshmen as Darth Vader reincarnate will fail for the inverse reason: most Americans just don't buy it.

Before last night, the default ball was squarely in Obama's court. But he punted it on third down – like a "quick kick" – back to the Republicans.

Now it's their turn to show real leadership and resolve. We'll see what they do. 

Jfredericks@beaconcast.com

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