“…the latest in a string of retreats by Obama in the face of Republican opposition.”

If moving the date of his Congressional Address was an embarrassing defeat, then what do we call this?

President Barack Obama, citing the nation’s struggling economy, asked the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw an air quality rule that Republicans and business groups have said could cost hundreds of billions of dollars a year and kill thousands of jobs.

The surprise move came as the economic recovery continued to show signs of stalling, with the labor market failing to add new jobs in August for the first time since September 2010.

In a statement, Mr. Obama said he supported efforts to promote clean air but added, “I have continued to underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover.”

Okay, hold up a sec. No, hold the point-and-laughing. President Obama’s doing the right thing, here. Maybe for the wrong reasons, but the right thing.

Thank you, President Obama.

Let’s also remember that this only prevents more regulation. It doesn’t examine and prune away existing regulation, no matter how excessive or unnecessary. It doesn’t “reduce regulatory burdens,” it just doesn’t increase them.

It should reduce regulatory uncertainty, though. Shouldn’t it?

Still:

The withdrawal of the proposed regulation marks the latest in a string of retreats by Obama in the face of Republican opposition. Last December, he shelved, at least until the end of 2012, his insistence that Bush-era tax cuts should no longer apply to the wealthy. Earlier this year he avoided a government shutdown by agreeing to Republican demands for budget cuts. And this summer he acceded to more than a $1 trillion in spending reductions, with more to come, as the price for an agreement to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

You gotta feel bad for the President, don’t you? Completely surrounded by Republicans, with nary a Democrat ally to be found anywhere?

Memeorandum.