Postmortem

Well in reading a multitude of articles over the last few days regarding the health care summit I have come to a couple of conclusions. First off, I find it slightly humorous the different angles of spin that come from both sides after a policy showdown like this. I am not complaining about it, I actually enjoy it (I am a glutton for punishment I think) because it gives people like me (who read way too much of this mostly useless analysis) an insight as to what both sides of the argument value. Was the summit for sheer political gain, or was there a policy lesson to be learned? If the answer was the latter then maybe the country could move forward with a plan that actually works and won't bankrupt the country at the same time. Would that be too much to ask?

Secondly, I think the President and his people have become tin-eared. Some would say he has been that way since day one and I find it hard to disagree too much outside of a couple of rare exceptions. Forget the failure of this meeting to make Obama "look Presidential" and leave Congressional Repubs in his speechifying dust. To me it's the sham of him sitting there for 7 or so hours knowing full well that whatever those other guys were saying, he sure as hell wasn't listening. Which is all too common for this President. It's a fine line between being resolute in your convictions and altogether not giving a care to what the other side is proposing and has been for quite some time now. The fact that his administration and handlers are more interested in putting on political kabuki theater than really having an honest policy discussion says so much about where this guy's head is at. He would rather be in perpetual campaign mode than actually lead this nation. This is not all that surprising when you research his background and his experience (oh yeah which the MSM failed to do,just ask Hillary how that works). He is a career organizer/disruptor. Unless he pulls himself out of this in the coming year (not holding my breath), he is the next irrelevant Jimmy Carter.