JULIE MASON, POLITICO: At the end. And really, this shows a real maturing of how the White House handles these political situations, because he got in at the very end and they inoculated him. If they come out with a deal, he gets the credit. If the deal breaks down, and the government shuts down, then it's not Obama's fault because he wasn't really involved. It was Congress' fault.

KURTZ: Are you suggesting that that is reality or that this is a spin that the media happily swallowed?

MASON: Oh, it's a complete spin. And the worst thing about this was -- is that when they did come out with a deal, the media was piling on saying this is great for Boehner, this is great for Obama, they worked it out, when really the entire situation was a failure of leadership. How did it get that far?