JAMES TARANTO: Fine! Call My Bluff! Obama maximizes his losses by going all in on a weak hand.

Remember a few weeks ago when President Obama reportedly said to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor: “Eric, don’t call my bluff”? Lots of commentators said that this was a “tell”–that by referring to “my bluff,” Obama was admitting he was bluffing.

Actually, his play was even worse than that. A bluff is a pretense. The bluffer knows he has a weak hand but bets as if he has a strong one in order to induce his opponents to fold. Obama had a weak hand but thought he had a strong one. His next words to Cantor, according to Politico, were a vow to “take his case ‘to the American people.’ ” He actually believed–for all we know, he still believes–all that World’s Greatest Orator nonsense.

Thus he ended up maximizing his losses.

Regardless of what you think about the deal, this has been a debacle for Obama personally. He’s looked weak but petulant, disengaged but inept, and his polls have plummeted. This debacle isn’t, by itself, the end of Obama’s re-election prospects, but he’s doing to himself in one term what Democrats needed two terms to do to Bush — stage a long, slow attrition of credibility, likeability, and follower loyalty.

Plus this:

Speaking on the House floor Saturday, Politico reports, silly Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi invoked “Star Wars,” declaring that Boehner “chose to go to the dark side.” The Tea Partiers could do worse than to follow a bit of counsel from that classic movie: “Great, kid. Don’t get cocky.”

Always good advice, but it won’t be hard to follow here.