New tone.

JOAN WALSH, SALON: [Obama] did a great job fighting the Paul Ryan budget, I believe it was back in April, Chris. You and I both talked about it. He really sounded like a Democrat. He really explained to Paul Ryan why he was making a lot of mistaken assumptions about the way America works. That was awesome, and he backed away from that. I think he was, it was right to try to compromise. It was right to take office in 2009 and try to reach out to the other side and believe that there were Republicans. . .

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Yeah, but that was easy. But that was easier, Joan. Joan, he made himself a tackling dummy. Paul Ryan stuck his neck out, and this guy punched his head off. But this time around, he’s up against shrewd, tough customers. Those guys fronting for the Tea Party, Ron, knew what they were doing. They had enough people behind them to give them bulk, and they went at the President saying, “We’re going to knock you off here. We don’t care what you think. We’re going to knock you off unless you say ‘Uncle.’”

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