My sense of it is that the parties have moved further apart during the shutdown, and so that in a sense, its end is further away than ever. A Democratic member of the House said this morning in my presence that he expected the shutdown to end with congressional passage of legislation including some “targeted” funding for border security, and further expected the president to “lie” in order to call it a great victory for himself. But I think that kind of deal is getting less acceptable to either side: Too many Republicans, and too many Democrats, would call it a sellout.

Ramesh Ponnuru is a senior editor for National Review , a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute. @rameshponnuru