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Commentators dissect US President Barack Obama's keynote speech calling for raised taxes on the rich as well as cuts in government spending, in what he termed a balanced approach to cutting the huge US budget deficit.

Under the headline, "President Obama, Reinvigorated", that "the man America elected president has re-emerged".

"For months, the original President Obama had disappeared behind mushy compromises and dimly seen principles. But on Wednesday, he used his budget speech to clearly distance himself from Republican plans to heap tax benefits on the rich while casting adrift the nation's poor, elderly and unemployed. Instead of adapting the themes of the right to his own uses, he set out a very different vision of an America that keeps its promises to the weak and asks for sacrifice from the strong."

The paper concludes that while "negotiations with an implacable opposition are about to get much tougher... it was a relief to see Mr Obama standing up for the values that got him to the table".

The as the latest instalment of "the fiscal drama in Washington", but said it was "too soon to tell if this will turn out to be tragedy, a heroic epic-or a farce".

"Mr Obama's draft goes like this: Get Democrats and Republicans to agree on what they can. Perhaps it's only a deficit target for fiscal 2014 and some "failsafe" mechanism to boost chances they keep the promise. That offers the public-and the markets-a little assurance Washington will do something about deficits before it's too late...

...If they can agree on something more-how much and what spending to cut, how much and how best to increase tax revenue-all the better. Odds are they won't. So they then carry competing approaches to the 2012 election and the winner decides."

Meanwhile, , argues that Obama's plan delivers only "imaginary solutions and tax increases".

"Mr Obama is a master of misdirection. Don't follow his patter and stagecraft - watch his hands. There is very little fiscal discipline in Mr Obama's plan at all. Much of his plan consists of unverifiable claims and promises. Indeed, Mr. Obama appears to be doing his utmost, given the reality of the nation's fiscally unsustainable course, to defend the entitlements and domestic spending programs so beloved of big-government liberals."

:

"In the truest sign that the 2012 campaign has begun in earnest, President Obama's budget speech on Wednesday veered sharply back to a familiar campaign-friendly, blame-heavy tone, aimed mostly at Republicans past and present... ...Obama hasn't brought back his infamous "car-in-the-ditch" metaphor, which dominated his stump speeches on the 2010 campaign trail. But it's becoming clear that the post-election resolution of calling for unity and avoiding partisan attacks are fading."

that "Obama made the moral case for what it means to be a Democrat".

"Crucially, right at the outset, Obama cast the battle with the GOP as one over whether we are going to maintain the social safety net and the national social contract as we've understood it for decades - and cast this question as central to our national identity..."

Meanwhile, , notes: "Obama the candidate is back. The president has gone into hibernation."

"This speech was about what he would do if he was president, not what he will actually do. The hard decisions are put off until, conveniently, after 2012 and 2014. Tax hikes will be automatically triggered if the budget is not kept down. Imagine. All congress and the president have to do is keep spending and an automatic tax hike will hit Americans. No fingerprints on a tax hike vote. The perfect zipless tax hike. This goes into the politician Hall of Fame."