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A tax rise for all Americans in January, which some Democrats seem prepared to risk, has been averted. The president has, as one conservative commentator has noted with something approaching disgusted admiration, . Unemployment benefits continued. A range of tax breaks for the less well-off. A brand new tax cut for 155 million workers. Someone on $40,000 will get an extra $800 next year. On $70,000, that rises to $1,400.

Passed with not just Republican support but with the Republicans' enthusiastic support. Even though it meant increasing the deficit by $858bn (£542bn).

Their price? Tax cuts for the better-off. They can argue that Americans earning over $250,000 dollars are not rich. They might have a harder argument saying that Americans with an estate worth more than $5m are not rich, for that is the new ceiling for a lower death duty.

But it is clearly an argument Mr Obama will relish returning to in 2012. Oh, did I forget to mention these tax cuts will run out in election year? Is that a deal, or a trap?

True, Obama has greatly angered the left of his own party. In the House, 112 Democrats voted against the package. Some say he's a bad negotiator and has betrayed his principles. Well, annoying the left may be a cheap trick for leaders of left-of-centre parties (cf Tony Blair) but it often goes down well with voters in the middle ground. Or even on the right. Time and time again, even at Tea Party meetings, I've heard that President Obama has not governed as he was elected, that he's been captured by the "Pelosi-Reid agenda". This is his answer.

You could see this clunky welding of two opposite approaches to the economy as a rather grubby deal. But I suspect Mr Obama has positioned himself rather cleverly, looking like a grown-up figure willing to give the small-minded partisan players their sweeties in return for doing what is good for the American people, rising presidentially above petty party politics of left and right.

The White House has upped its game. It may not work, but Mr Obama has raised his gaze from serious policy to harsh politics, traps and tricks, and all.

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