Democrats will not be surprised at the notion that their strategists aren't that whippy

Raising the debt ceiling is usually pro forma, something you have to do as a technicality because, if you don't, all hell breaks loose in the markets and the United States takes a nose-dive back into the barter system--which would be bad.

The House GOP leadership knows the debt ceiling needs to be raised, but the rank-and-file House members are worried that Tea Party activists might challenge them in a GOP primary.  Therefore, they have to appear resolute against debt.

Stuart Rothenberg argues here that the Democrats are in a weaker bargaining position than the Republicans because a vote to raise the debt ceiling sounds bad.  

But even partisan Democrats agree that their party faces a considerable risk if they look as if they are insufficiently committed to cutting spending. Indeed, merely by supporting an increase in the debt limit, Democrats play into an image that they are trying to change — that they are fiscally irresponsible.

What utter nonsense.  If these party insiders are this stupid, no wonder we lose.  Everybody knows the debt ceiling vote is a technicality.  Besides, what kind of "fiscal responsibility" is it to start two wars, pass an (unfunded) prescription drug benefit, all while lowering taxes for plutocrats and easing regulations for oligarchs?

Secondly, the American people are not as worked up about the debt as Washington insiders think.  In fact, they barely care about the deficit at all, and they are absolutely right not too.  What we need are jobs and people paying taxes.  That debt goes away surprisingly quick if you have broad general prosperity. 

The problem for the Democrats is that, if the debt ceiling is not raised, a spike in interest rates would not be a positive development in an economy still struggling to recover and people would blame the administration and the Democrats.

The danger for the Republicans is that their intransigence sinks a struggling economy, and their fingerprints are all over the crime.  The Republicans have a political problem, in other words, while the Democrats have a governing one as well as a political one.

On the other hand, if the Democrats refuse to cut programs that benefit the middle class in order to slake their opponents' ideological thirst--if they refuse to be blackmailed, in other words--there's a good chance the American people would rally behind them.