Obama: Reagan "could not get through a Republican primary today"

Well, I'm late to the party today, and there's not much I can say that hasn't already been said about Obama's crystal clear contrast between his budget priorities and the Ryan Republicans' today in his speech at the Associated Press lunch. See Greg Sargent on core messages (especially on defending government activism as essential to sustainable growth), Ezra Klein on making the Ryan cuts concrete, Jamelle Bouie on highlighting the current GOP's extremism.

I will content myself with the encore: a remarkable little pocket brief that Obama delivered in response to the first question. The subject was Republican extremism, and the false equivalence that locates the reasonable center at the midpoint between two parties. Claiming the center, Obama reeled off a syllogism:  a) deficit reduction entails a common sense mix of revenue hikes and spending cuts; b) all the Republican presidential candidates ruled out any revenue hikes; c) Ronald Reagan accepted the budgeting realities that the current GOP denies; d) Democrats were willing to accept tough entitlements cuts, but Republicans wouldn't budge on revenue; therefore e) the press indulges in false equivalence when it portrays both sides as equally unable to compromise.  Here's the disquisition: