Paul Ryan is one of the brightest and most articulate stars in the firmament of Republican congressional officeholders. To give him 6 minutes of uninterrupted media in order to demolish the President's policy assumptions while the President himself looks on silently is a faux pas of the highest order.
By descending from the heights of Mt. Olympus to engage with pols from both parties Obama inadvertently bestowed a presumption of seriousness and credibility on the attendees. He thus gave the Republicans a prominent platform from which to showcase their opposition to Obamacare.
Worse yet (from the Dems point of view), he gave GOP members highly valuable media face-time to demonstrate to a national audience their command of the issue of health reform and the fact that they have positive ideas for real reform. The summit undermined the Dems' primary line of attack on Republicans, which is that the GOP is the party of "no" which has no health reform ideas of its own. In retrospect, the GOP leadership's decision to attend the summit--a decision excoriated by prominent conservative voices--turned out to be politically astute.
The summit was a disaster for Democrats. Someone in the Obama White House should be fired and sued for political malpractice.
It's obvious that this health care plan is a move to grow our government and it's obvious that the American people do not want this plan in it's current form, however, the Democrats will continue to ram this through, with or without the consent of the American people. It's about time we take our country back. Join our group and start a chapter in your own town. November here we come.
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