A sampling of bigfoot liberal pundit reaction to the summit. Steven Pearlstein:
The most important thing Republicans think is that if there are Americans who can’t afford the insurance policies that private insurers are willing to offer, then that’s their problem — there’s nothing the government or the rest of us should do about it….That was their clear message Thursday. It was their message during all those years when their party controlled Congress and the White House and they did nothing and said nothing about the plight of the uninsured. And it is clear that they would continue to do nothing if, by some miracle, Democrats were to drop their plan or embark on a more modest approach. For Republicans, the uninsured remain invisible Americans, out of sight and out of mind.
The Republicans simply don’t want to pass comprehensive health-care reform. That is the main lesson of today’s health-care summit.
So what did we learn from the summit? What I took away was the arrogance that the success of things like the death-panel smear has obviously engendered in Republican politicians. At this point they obviously believe that they can blandly make utterly misleading assertions, saying things that can be easily refuted, and pay no price. And they may well be right.
Can’t disagree with any of that! Still, my take is that the summit was basically a draw, but with a slight edge to the Republicans. They didn’t have to win, after all. They just had to seem non-insane, and for the most part they did. What’s more, Obama missed a chance to provide a punchy, 60-second sales pitch for the Democratic plan. A recent Kaiser poll that’s been making the rounds shows that Americans don’t like the Democratic plan but they do like the features of the plan. They just don’t know they’re there. So Obama should have outlined those features in quick, soundbite format. He missed a bet by not doing that.
