There are two distinctly different versions of the Health Care Summit circulating this week. Curiously enough, I’m pretty sure both were written and ready to roll before the meeting even began. In summary, the two stories are:
A) President Obama graciously invited the Republicans to participate in a Health Care Summit. He did so with the honest and optimistic intention of opening a constructive dialogue to solve the impasse stalling his comprehensive Health Care Bill, which would provide affordable health care to all Americans. The Republicans, however, showed up with only obstruction in mind, disdaining his attempts at open discussion in favor of partisan complaining political posturing.
B) President Obama dragged key congressional Republicans away from their work to host a staged show of posturing for the TV cameras. Although the Republicans made sincere efforts to alert the out-of-touch Democrats to the fact that the American people do not want their version of health care foisted upon them against their will, the president met their overtures with scorn and derision. He arrogantly refused to discuss the concerns of Republican leaders, barely hiding the fact that this was just a dog and pony show before he rams through the bill without any Republican input.
Sadly, I think the truth is a mixture of the negative portions of both accounts. I don’t think anyone in attendance had any intention of coming to any kind of agreement. President Obama himself seemed impatient and irritated from the get go. He tapped his pen, stroked his chin, and generally conveyed his best “I don’t have time for your nonsense” body language throughout the televised conference. He did everything but his infamous “scratch my eye with my middle finger when I talk about you” maneuver from the campaign trail.
Maybe the highlight was John McCain’s mention of the president’s back door deal making, which he offered “with respect”. I looked up “with respect” in my Political Speak to English translation dictionary and apparently it means, “I can’t believe the people elected an arrogant jerk like you over me.”
In the final analysis, I think each party achieved what they wanted out of the summit. Too bad what they wanted was to make the other side look bad instead of trying to fix the real problem.
