Why is the Tax Cut Extension deal looked at as a failure on both sides?

I don't think they are looking at it as failure. But they recognize that neither side really achieved all it wanted.

And that's the nature of bi-partisanship.

Liberals don't understand the reasons for extending the high end Bush tax cuts. They only understand it as pandering to the rich. They are furious that they can't stick it to the rich with a full 55% Estate Tax. That's why they see the bill as bad. Republicans have no problem with extending the cuts. However, The SS tax break, ethanol and wind power increased subsidies are more Progressive spending that doesn't achieve anything as well as a yet again further extension of unemployment. That's why they dislike the bill.

It's hardly a compromise, except for the fact that all sides and all parties involved compromised their ethics, integrity, and responsibilities. In this case, BOTH parties, AND Obama himself, pushed through yet another massive borrowing binge. They all put on rose-colored glasses and ignored the fact that we are never going to pay this money back, just like we will never pay back the "stimulus" money. We are heaping debt and interest payments onto a future generation and sticking our heads in the sand.

Yes, it is failure.

This is what happens when both parties are populated only by extremists after all the moderates were driven out.

They view compromise as failure.

Yes, it could.

President Obama seems to be the only one in Washington putting the people ahead of political ambition. Without this compromise, millions of people would lose income starting January 1, perhaps even lose their homes. Admittedly, they are all unimportant people. They're not wealthy, not business owners, not influential, not defense contractors, not represented by lobbyists, not moguls, not pundits, not loud-mouths. They're just people trying to do the right things for their communities and families.

They're the people who won in this agreement. President Obama did well. Democrats will understand that eventually.

extremists always view any compromise as a failure...

they believe in only the most pure ideology of their wing... and believe any alteration of that ideology is making a mistake...

they believe they are 100 percent right all the time... and if you believed that, why would you compromise with those you believe are 100 percent wrong?

that's why they are extremists...

I view it as a positive.