Where, in the midst of a disastrous political farce, does a politician thinking about running for President want to position himself? At the center of the action, as the foil or the fixer, or as a comic-opera hero who enters shouting? There are times when it might also be better to stay offstage. In the final hours of the fiscal-cliff crisis, different potential candidates came up with different answers…

Rubio, Paul, Biden, Christie: Amy Davidson on how 2016 Presidential contenders play the fiscal cliff: http://nyr.kr/Uldd1g