Kathianne
02-26-2010, 06:50 AM
Pretty much my thoughts, though I think Obama lost his point in the last 5 minutes:
http://www.slate.com/id/2246025/?from=rss
POLITICS
GOP 1, Obama 1, Democrats 0
Obama and Republicans seemed reasonable. That's bad news for Democrats.
By John Dickerson
Posted Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010, at 7:37 PM ET
If the White House health care summit was political theater, here's a 30-second review: President Obama won. So did congressional Republicans. Democrats in Congress need another act. This is not because Obama is such a better speaker and advocate for the legislation than his allies, though he is. It's because Democrats didn't get much political benefit from the event.
Obama ran for office promising to reach out to the other party. He said he would try to find areas of common agreement, and when his opponents had a legitimate philosophical disagreement, he would not question their motives. He did all of that in the session. Obama was not the crazy liberal caricature of GOP attacks during the seven-hour iron-bottom discussion. (Which may itself have been bad for the health of the people in the room.)
Republicans came out ahead for the same reason: They did not look like hell-bent obstructionists. This isn't to say that they tried to meet the president halfway. They didn't even try to meet him a quarter of the way. Repeatedly they called on him to start over. The president tried to get the room to focus on areas of agreement, and though several Republicans—notably Sen. Tom Coburn and Rep. Dave Camp—worked in that spirit, several others (hello, Reps. John Boehner and Eric Cantor) did not...
http://www.slate.com/id/2246025/?from=rss
POLITICS
GOP 1, Obama 1, Democrats 0
Obama and Republicans seemed reasonable. That's bad news for Democrats.
By John Dickerson
Posted Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010, at 7:37 PM ET
If the White House health care summit was political theater, here's a 30-second review: President Obama won. So did congressional Republicans. Democrats in Congress need another act. This is not because Obama is such a better speaker and advocate for the legislation than his allies, though he is. It's because Democrats didn't get much political benefit from the event.
Obama ran for office promising to reach out to the other party. He said he would try to find areas of common agreement, and when his opponents had a legitimate philosophical disagreement, he would not question their motives. He did all of that in the session. Obama was not the crazy liberal caricature of GOP attacks during the seven-hour iron-bottom discussion. (Which may itself have been bad for the health of the people in the room.)
Republicans came out ahead for the same reason: They did not look like hell-bent obstructionists. This isn't to say that they tried to meet the president halfway. They didn't even try to meet him a quarter of the way. Repeatedly they called on him to start over. The president tried to get the room to focus on areas of agreement, and though several Republicans—notably Sen. Tom Coburn and Rep. Dave Camp—worked in that spirit, several others (hello, Reps. John Boehner and Eric Cantor) did not...