Evidently The Master Plan Is To Bore Us Into Submission...

Clueless. Genuinely, completely and totally clueless:

President Barack Obama is planning to host a televised meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on health care reform.

The Feb. 25 meeting is an attempt to reach across the aisle but not a signal that the president plans to start over, as Republicans have demanded, a White House official said.

“I want to come back [after the Presidents Day congressional recess] and have a large meeting — Republicans and Democrats — to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward,” Obama said in an interview with Katie Couric during CBS’s Super Bowl pre-game show Sunday.

Obama said he wants to “look at the Republican ideas that are out there.”

“If we can go, step by step, through a series of these issues and arrive at some agreements, then, procedurally, there’s no reason why we can’t do it a lot faster the process took last year,” he said.

In a statement, the official said, “What the president will not do is let this moment slip away. He hopes to have Republican support in doing so — but he is going to move forward on health reform.”

With absolutely no concessions to reality. Not one:

The idea has been met previously with skepticism by the congressional leaders of both parties. Republicans say they see little room for compromise because the bill should be scrapped, while Democrats argue they have already tried a bipartisan approach, but failed.

But the classic line in all this nonsense is this:

“While he’s been very clear that he supports the House and Senate bills, if Republicans or anyone else has a plan for protecting Americans from insurance company abuses, lowering costs, reducing prescription drug prices for seniors, making coverage more secure, and offering affordable options to those without coverage, he’s anxious to see it and debate the merits of it,” the White House official said.

Both of them? Both of them? How in the world can you support both of them? This is leadership?

Hear that sound? Listen. Can you hear it? I can. It's two sounds actually, voiced simultaneously: Republican laughter (hysterical variety) and Democratic lamentations (wailing variety).

Comments

[Dave M]

Tragically, I don't think this is theater... I think the Prez truly believes national level problems get solved like PTA board meeting disputes. Let's all sit down and listen to everybody's ideas and talk until everyone is happy. Evidence be damned, that's his worldview and he's sticking to it...

[wombat]

Used to be "attempt to reach across the aisle" meant deal-cutting, finding common ground or grift, or that bi-(polar/ sexual) partisanship thing, which would sitteth on the left hand of Gawd Almighty were it not for a ghost.

Under Obama, it's more like Gilligan and his gang trying to cross the isle, only to see the danger in it and then back to absurdity, as usual. Tune in next week for more of the same.

[JeffS]

Obama's inner "Community Organizer" is shining through that Presidential exterior.

[Simon]

The Repubs will simply take potshots at the Demos half baked proposals in this 'debate'.

Barry is simply too pure and good-hearted for this world, a bit like Jesus.

And by 'pure and good-hearted' I mean 'stupid and incompetent' and by 'Jesus' I mean 'Corky from Life Goes On'.

[TmjUtah]

But Dennis, it's going to be on TV.

And we all know, TV is IMPORTANT.

Laughter? That's just the beginning.

I entertained the thought, briefly, that maybe Obama is in fact actually aiming for a higher purpose. He is indeed bending every effort to bring down the system - BUT - he's doing it because it is better to have the collapse now than later.

Then I thought about it some more, and realized I'd be extending credit that a man raised by communists, reared in a BLT church, and the wholly owned product of the Chicago machine MIGHT be a moral agent.

I'll even leave out the AA credentials and blank resume...

Nope. Just a dorm room Lenin who arrived on stage at the brink of the collapse.

[Randy Rager]

And when the Republicans quite rightly tell him that the Democrat's plan(s) aren't fit for serf's in a third world communist gulag much less a nation of free human beings, what then?

And when the Republicans point out that their plan would do far more good for far less money if anyone is actually interested in doing good on a budget instead of playing partisan politics, what then?

Obama is Fail.

[Copper Quark]

And when the Republicans point out that their plan would do far more good for far less money if anyone is actually interested in doing good on a budget instead of playing partisan politics, what then?

I think he's betting that the Republicans can't make their points as well as he can via the TV forum. And unfortunately he may have a point, but that's unlikely to change anybody's mind very much since most folks don't trust either party.