Byron York‘s latest Washington Examiner report focuses on Democratic malaise and President Obama’s response to recent election results:

The [Democratic] party has hated “tax cuts for the rich” for nearly a decade, but now that those cuts are sunsetting, they can’t decide what to do. Some Democrats want to stand firm against extending cuts for high-income taxpayers, while others agree with Republicans that the Bush rates should be extended for everybody, even the “rich,” if only for a few years. Democratic legislators can’t even come together on an alternative proposal to extend all the cuts except for people who earn more than $1 million a year.

Think about it: If today’s Democrats don’t stand for raising taxes on millionaires, then what do they stand for?

For some in the Democratic base, the party’s current confusion is the last straw. Imagine if you had said this to a lefty activist back in those happy days of January 2009: “By the end of 2010, President Obama will have escalated the war in Afghanistan, there will be 50,000 American troops in Iraq, Guantanamo will remain open, some of the most controversial aspects of the Bush war on terror will still be in effect, there will be no grand climate legislation, no comprehensive immigration reform, no second round of stimulus, and oh, by the way — they’re going to extend Bush’s tax cuts for the rich.”

It’s no wonder true believers have sunk into a funk. “I hope President Obama, who’s intensely intelligent, understands that he needs to … stand tall, stand hard, stand tough,” the Nation’s editor Katrina vanden Heuvel said recently. “It about morality, principle, good policy, good politics to stand tall on these Bush tax cuts.”

There’s been a lot of speculation among Republicans about Obama’s ability to practice Clintonian triangulation in the face of the new GOP majority in the House. Many Republicans don’t believe the president can do it, that he’s simply too rigidly ideological to pull it off. But if that’s so, why did he just announce a freeze on federal workers’ pay?

“He is totally capable of triangulating,” says a Democratic strategist. “Look at this pay freeze. Having the unions shrieking is great for him. I don’t think he’ll be politically harmed at all. I think he’ll benefit.”