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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Jonah Goldberg
Bipartisan Healthcare Summit
The president has invited congressional Republicans to sit down and talk through health care at a big "bipartisan summit" on Feb. 25. Some think it's a little late for such a conversation. After all, the Democrats have built their health care palace from the ground up, using only Democratic labor and Democratic input; they just can't get it to pass inspection. So general contractor Obama invites Republicans to debate the blueprints, and just the blueprints. Oh, and he wants to debate them, not change them. Not really.
"The president doesn't think we should start over,"
The best you can say about the effort is that it fits into the
The worst you can say is that it's a cynical trap, designed to make the
Liberals like the idea because they want the Republicans to get brained. They believe the
Even so, the
Boycotting the event, as some have recommended, would rightly be seen as a sign of cowardice. Although there's no reason why the
That's the great irony in this whole stunt. Since he took office, Obama has been trying to use Republicans as one kind of foil or another. He started by castigating them as mindless drones of Rush Limbaugh. When Republican leaders opposed Obama's hyper-partisan stimulus, the president chastised them. "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told them.
Then the
At every turn, Obama's agenda became less popular, his support among independents cratered, his promises to change the tone in Washington looked ever more transparent, and his magic spell over the press weakened. Gallup now has Obama in a statistical dead heat against a generic Republican opponent, and the Democratic party is in near total freefall, despite the fact it still has almost total dominion over Washington.
Now the president has another brilliant plan. Once again he has Republicans exactly where he wants them. Only someone who thinks Obama is one
explanation away from total victory should think the
Available at Amazon.com:
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
AMERICAN POLITICS
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Planned Bipartisan Summit Just an Infomercial in Disguise | Jonah Goldberg
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