When President Obama shelved the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles Commission, he made the biggest mistake of his first term.

He had commissioned this bi-partisan group to solve the problem of the federal deficit and assigned two statesmen of a bygone era, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, to chair it. They proposed a blend of cuts and revenue increases, which would have been the last reasonable suggestion for balancing the budget Congress considered in the present administration.

Why did the President back away their proposals? Perhaps the cuts were too severe for liberal Democrats or endangered the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act. Regardless, they represented the last true compromise, the last stab at a “Grand Bargain,” which could have separated the sheep from the goats in Congress.

Now both the sheep and the goats are headed toward the “fiscal cliff,” the automatic expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the draconian budget cuts scheduled for 2013. Writing in the New York Times on Sunday, Bill Keller suggested that the President should dare the squabbling herd to stampede off the fiscal cliff and let the consequences be damned. Apparently Erskine Bowles, co-framer of the last Grand Bargain, has recommended this course to press Congress to action.

This sounds like the right tactic for a Congress so tied up in its principles that it can’t move north, south, east or west.  Call their bluff and see if they’ll let their financial principles carry them over the fiscal bluff.  I’d buy a ticket to that show.

An even better show would be to make the Grand Bargain a campaign issue.  Make the candidates show their hands and threaten to take Congress to the brink. No more finger wagging about what should happen with the federal budget, but honest proposals about what could happen if Congress took its job seriously.

Put the Erskine-Bowles Commission’s recommendations on the table, as a symbol of compromise, and let the candidates explain their resistance. This is President Obama’s final chance to show economic leadership with a recalcitrant Congress.  Dare those posers to do nothing, to say nothing. Make this presidential campaign about the virtues of compromise and action, instead of posturing and resistance.

Tell Congress to get over the bluffing or head over the bluff with banners held high.