In the News: “The President is taking control of this important debate”
Following the bipartisan health reform meeting, news outlets and commentators are calling the meeting a success for the country and President Obama – and a clear step forward on reform.
CNN - “a lot to appreciate in yesterday's bipartisan White House health care summit”:
There was a lot to appreciate in yesterday's bipartisan White House health care summit between President Obama and members of Congress. Obama deserves credit for convening the meeting. His opening remarks were good, especially when he talked about the rising costs of health insurance premiums, the "exploding costs of Medicare and Medicaid," and how he wanted to "make sure that this discussion is actually a discussion and not just us trading talking points." It also did something else. It reminded the American people of who calls the shots in Washington. It's the party in power. Democrats control all the levers of government, at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. [CNN, 2/26/10]
New York Times - “Most of the credit goes to President Obama”:
Most of the credit goes to President Obama. The man really knows how to lead a discussion. He stuck to specifics and tried to rein in people who were flying off into generalities. He picked out the core point in any comment. He tried to keep things going in a coherent direction. Moreover, he seemed to be trying to get a result. Republicans had their substantive criticism of the Democratic bills, but Obama kept pressing them for areas of agreement. [NYT, 2/26/10]
MSNBC - “The Blair House Project”:
Still, yesterday's Blair House Project was a pretty extraordinary exercise. President Obama, who essentially served as moderator-in-chief, used the health-care summit to make the case that the Democratic health-care bills aren’t radical (if they don’t have a public option, how do they represent a government takeover?), and that they included a fair number of GOP ideas. Much like he did at his State of the Union, Obama also tried to elevate himself above the partisan fray, even if he engaged in it himself (example: his testy exchange with McCain). [MSNBC First Read, 2/26/10]
The New Republic - “Why You Can't Discuss Health Care With The GOP”:
Obama has spoken at enormous length today about why letting insurance companies sell policies across state lines would let insurers siphon out the healthy and leave the sick behind. John Boehner, the House Majority Leader, simply repeated the GOP talking point about scrapping the 2,000 page bill and doing the easy popular stuff… It's not that he's provided an answer to Obama's arguments that I disagree with. He's just totally unable to acknowledge or engage at any level with the arguments presented. You're debating a brick wall. [TNR, 2/26/10]
Washington Post - The Fix “Winners and losers from the health care summit”:
What Obama did do was paint himself – for anyone who was watching – as someone genuinely interested in compromise and genuinely interested in engaging with his Republican colleagues… Obama also didn’t let Republicans run rough-shod over him either. He clashed with Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and John McCain (Ariz.) – showing a feistiness (albeit a measured feistiness) that is likely to be well received by the party’s base. Obama’s performance saved, to our mind, what could have been a disastrous day for his party as he got relatively little help from his party’s representatives in Congress throughout the day.” [Washington Post, 2/25/10]
David Gergen on CNN:
The president deserves enormous credit for putting this on He was I thought extremely graceful and occasionally with an edge, but he was graceful and dominated much of the proceedings, and the democrats got stronger in afternoon than in the morning. [CNN, 2/25/10]
Jessica Yellin on CNN:
I actually thought it was a win for, it sounds cheesy, but for the country. [CNN, 2/25/10]
New York Times - “President Urges Focus on Common Ground”:
Mr. Obama, speaking to lawmakers from his seat at the table they shared, not from a podium or with a teleprompter, used his opening remarks to make the case that reforming the health care system is critical to the nation’s economy. He made no opening bids, but instead called on the two parties to abandon their talking points and engage in a real unscripted discussion, even as he conceded that it might not result in a bridging of the deep philosophical divide between them. [NYT, 2/25/10]
Plum Line - “Obama To GOP: It’s Over”:
Whether Obama and Dems will succeed in passing reform on their own is anything but assured, to put it mildly. But there’s virtually no doubt anymore that they are going to try — starting as early as tomorrow. That was the subtle but unmistakable message of Obama’s closing argument After hours of hearing Republicans repeat again and again that only an incremental approach to reform is acceptable to them, Obama rejected that out of hand. [Plum Line, 2/25/10]
Dana Bash on CNN:
“But the other thing is that you are hearing a lot of the message from the Democrats talking about how Republicans have some ideas that they have adopted, and that is definitely true."
“The President is taking control of this important debate”
[CNN, 2/25/10]
Washington Post - “What the health-care summit taught us”:
Obama sent a very strong signal toward the end of the summit: He wants a bill even if the only way to get it is through the reconciliation route. “I don’t think that the American people are interested in the process inside the Senate,” Obama replied in response to Sen. John McCain’s criticism of the idea that the Senate might try to pass a bill with fewer than 60 Senate votes. Most Americans, Obama said, believe in “majority rule.” So they do. The president was telling members of his own party: Press on. [Washington Post, 2/26/10]