Politics

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Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images I've been afflicted this week with a disorienting sense of déjà vu that affects any reporter who has covered Washington long enough. Even the most consequential and operatic standoffs begin to seem eerily familiar.

President Obama took to the news conference podium Friday at the White House amid stalled negotiations on raising the debt-ceiling and tackling the federal deficit. The question-and-answer session with reporters came after a week of meetings with congressional…