I called it ... NO PODIUM ...
Obama is just another guy sitting around the table ... his speechifying skills are useless in that forum ...
He doesn't get to lord over or act like a professor ...
This should be fun ...

Got my popcorn ready!

I've never been more proud of Barry! Even his failure's are somehow minimized by the light of his non-accomplishment's.

Barry is entitled to his own set of truths such as "Mao was god" and "now I am" but the truth has a way of making an idiot stand out in a crowd. And Barry,' Man do you stand out!

No time limits were set and communicated to the participants...and he keeps harping on it...this president has obviously never chaired a meeting before...he is a joke!!

Most amusing quote of the day (so far): "I hope that this isn't just political theater," Mr. Obama said.

Yeah, it's not theater; it's a frakkin' circus, and you're the ringleader, Barry!

"Yeah, it's not theater; it's a frakkin' circus, and you're the ringleader, Barry!"

No Peter, He's the big eared purple lipped clown!

Someone on the Republican side should stand up and ask Bozo if he'll sign healthcare reform legislation if it is passed thru reconciliation. The first speaker, Lamar (I think) asked him and Bozo glossed right over it (not surprised). If he refuses the Repubs should all walk out and leave Bozo with his purple lips (great one, 914!) hanging open....

joe biden opens his mouth and proves once again that he is dead from the neck up...

Go home Joe!

The whole reason for this from the Democratic/Obama point of view was to publicly put the Republicans on the spot, and to give the impression that Obama was a moderate, mediating participant in the presentation of the issue of health reform.

Though I have not watched the entire proceedings, this intention has back-fired on both counts.

The Republicans have presented themselves as insightful, intelligent, and thoughtful participants.

They have offered good ideas in relation to what the Democrats have put forth, which is a plan that has wrought nothing but scorn and rejection from the American people.

No matter how much the term "bi-partisan" has been bandied about by liberals on this issue, it has been the Republicans who today have proved that their ideas have been ignored and slandered by the liberal congressional majority, and by a President who has purposely handed off this responsibility to his cohorts in congress, acting in agreement with them in attempting to label Republicans as "The party of no."

This really is A PR disaster for the Democrats, and a winning situation for the Republican participants.

They accepted the invitation, they have shown a well-informed grasp of the issue, and have publicly displayed that their ideas have been held down and squashed by the Democratic majority.

Any attempt now by the majority to ram this through with procedural strong-armed tactics will be viewed by the public with disdain, and it will have been due to a tactical PR mistake pushed by Obama and his Democratic bullies.

A pretty astonishing error by such a polished campaigner.

Barry's flustered obfuscation was very evident. When He has to answer without the teleprompters permission He draws a blank, than cutting and running become his favorite pastime..

What Shawn said.

Barry is probably fuming right now and telling Rahm to hang the person who came up with this "Health Care Summit" idea that was going to make Him look GREAT!

Shawn,

I agree with your analysis.
The question, to me, is how will the MSM be able to portray the repubs as the problem.

Oh I am sure that the lame-stream media have their cauldrons a bubble and are stewing up ideas to spin this in favor of bozo and co.

Dead at conception.. Just like all of Barry's brainchilds..

At this health care summit, all the Democrats should be sitting in chairs that are designed to shock them every time they tell a lie. They would have to disconnect an entire nuclear power plant from the rest of the power grid to provide ample service for this one meeting...

It seems to me all the Dems have brought to the table are a bunch of sob stories (who the hell knows how many of them are even remotely true?) while the Republicans are the ones that have actually added substance to the discussion. I think this whole idea will turn out to be another epic Obama failure. If he had made good on his "all the health care negotiations will be done in the open and televised on C-SPAN" the whole thing probably would have died long before now. These people are in embarrassment to this nation.

Obama to McCain: "We're not campaigning anymore. The election is over."

You should talk, Barry The Perpetual Campaigner.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100225/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1187

More proof obama is the most tone deaf politician who ever held and office:

McCain: "I understand the frustration that the majority feels when they can't get their agenda through," McCain said. "But I remember .. the last time there was a proposal that we Republicans in the majority would adopt a 51 -vote majority on the confirmation of judges."

"There was a group of us that got together and said, 'No that's not right, " McCain said, referring to his involvement in the Gang of 14, which enraged the conservative base.

"If a 51 vote reconciliation is enacted on 1/6 of our gross national product," McCain said, "I think it could harm the future of our country and of our institution."

Obama did not appear to share McCain's concern over the use of reconciliation.

"This issue of reconciliation has been brought up. I think the American people aren't always that interested in procedures inside the Senate. I do think they want a vote on how we're going to move this forward. I think most Americans think a majority vote make sense."

who in the hell woke up chris dodd??

The lockout lie has been exposed in front of the American people. The record show that.

"This issue of reconciliation has been brought up. I think the American people aren't always that interested in procedures inside the Senate. I do think they want a vote on how we're going to move this forward. I think most Americans think a majority vote make sense."

Filibuster - that's a procedure used to prevent a vote.

Reconciliation - that's a procedure used to prevent a filibuster.

If reconciliation is used it will take a majority of votes of our elected representatives to pass the measure.

That's called democracy.

Screw the procedures and let a majority of our elected representatives do what they were elected to do - decide, and vote.

It'll take 51 votes or more to pass the bill. That's a majority. Let's abide by the majority wishes of our democratically-elected representatives and not let Republicans stand in the way of health care reform.

Pelosi is now exposing the lies of the Republicans.... let the record show the GOP stood in front of them and lied. We've had enough of this crap. Let's move on.

bryanD "I noticed that when mention was made of 100-odd Republican amendments being accepted by Democrats, no Republican argued the fact."

I noticed that when mention was made of bryanD's birth certificate is written in NASCA Lines no one disputed the fact.

bozo just can't refrain from that 30-minute condescending lecture, can he?

al cazam "Reconciliation - that's a procedure used to prevent a filibuster."

Be careful of what you wish for. Put another way you're ignorant of the process beyond compare.

Reconciliation "protections" apply only to a very narrow set of policy matters, all relating to changes in taxes, spending, or debt.

I'd suggest, if you had a bit of intellectual honesty, to study The Byrd Rule.

In short, the rule will gut the Senate bill that would be voted on.

As someone who you most likely hate said: "Bring them on."

Al Cazam writes:
"Pelosi is now exposing the lies of the Republicans.... let the record show the GOP stood in front of them and lied. We've had enough of this crap. Let's move on."

Holy cow! I don't know what you saw in the summit today. The Democrats have implied that the average American is not sophisticated enough to understand the complexities of health care. After today's performance that pretty much describes the Democrats as well. It's nice to be the president and have the self-appointed privilege of dismissing uncomfortable questions but I can't be sure Obama has any idea what the details of any Democrat healthcare proposal contains. I think any independent voter who had the opportunity to watch today realizes the Republicans do have ideas about health care. The Republicans blocking this particular piece of garbage legislation are clearly doing the United States a big favor.

"We the Nephilim need no stinkin birth certificates!
Stinkin birth certificates are for stinkin hu-mans only!
Stinkin hu-man harvest via Obamacare is at hand!
Spacefish pet food quota will be met!"

Uh, bryanD, your mom's calling you. She wants you to come up from the basement now before your supper gets cold.

Al Cazam wrote:

If reconciliation is used it will take a majority of votes of our elected representatives to pass the measure.

That's called democracy.

Be careful using polysyllabic words you don't understand. Reconciliation is described by statute, 2 USC § 641, and is strictly a budget measure. The Democrats will break that law as well the Senate rules by trying to pass this by reconciliation. But, Reid said they wouldn't do that anyway, didn't he.

DaveD "but I can't be sure Obama has any idea what the details of any Democrat healthcare proposal contains."

Well wasn't it very plain he's clueless about the bill dropping HC costs. He basically called people liars.

then was handed a note from some lackey and had to say oopsy, I'm a fool and wrong.

Just another case of THE ONE not knowing what he's talking about.

Link to a poor quality youtube of Pelosi exposing the Republican lies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VVsDmdc5IQ

re: reconciliation and the Byrd rule- your pals are lying to you if they tell you that Byrd will prevent this bill from passing. The Byrd rule won't apply to this legislation. Obama made that clear when provisions of Byrd were raised by Republicans during the discussion.

And the Republicans sat on the their hands anyway. OK, choice made. Time to move on.

al cazam... that that there is funny.

You linking to a proven liar suggesting someone else is lying.

Comedy gold you are.

Pssst al cazam... Here are provisions that violate the Byrd rule:

Exchanges / Gateways, and all the requirements imposed through them - They're separated from the subsidies. Someone might argue that the exchanges are a "necessary term and condition" of making the subsidies work. That's a huge stretch.

So-called health insurance consumer protections - Insurance mandates such as those requiring guaranteed issue and guaranteed renewability, no lifetime or annual limits, extension of coverage to 25-year old dependents, and modified community rating. A couple of friends pointed out that these provisions would make health insurance more expensive. That depresses wages, which reduces income tax revenues, which is a budgetary effect. This fits in the merely incidental bucket - these provisions would fundamentally restructure the insurance industry with a minor budget effect.

The public option - As currently drafted, it's designed to be independent of federal spending. If so, it's extraneous. They could redraft it to link it more closely to the spending so it doesn't violate the Byrd rule.

Al Cazam, you are too dense and uninformed about how government works to even get into this. I will say that if the "reconsiliation" bill moves forward, then one can only imagine all the great things conservatives can do once we have the majority back. ww

Al Cazam, with this Democrat majority and such an important piece of legislation, if passage comes down to a discussion of procedural issues and intentionally avoiding discussing the details of the bill itself, you're pretty much screwed.

And this from your post: "Time to move on." Be careful quoting Obama directly without proper acknowledgement.

The language of the bill has specifically been crafted to work around Byrd. It was given voice several times today, you apparently didn't understand the big words, Marc.

"Al Cazam, with this Democrat majority and such an important piece of legislation, if passage comes down to a discussion of procedural issues and intentionally avoiding discussing the details of the bill itself, you're pretty much screwed."

Are you saying that the vote of a majority (51 or more) of the US Senate in favor of passing the bill is not valid? Seriously?

And as to "procedural issues" - that's what a filibuster is, and the Republicans have been abusing that all year.

Time to move on. If Obama said that too good for him.

Are you saying that the vote of a majority (51 or more) of the US Senate in favor of passing the bill is not valid?

No, dumbass. A bill may not come to the floor for a vote unless debate has been closed by 60 votes. That's been the rule of the Senate forever. Did you flunk out of 7th grade Civics class?

"Al Cazam" = Steve Green.

"No, dumbass. A bill may not come to the floor for a vote unless debate has been closed by 60 votes. That's been the rule of the Senate forever. Did you flunk out of 7th grade Civics class?"

That's why reconciliation is being considered. Reconciliation requires 51 votes. Keep up here, iwog.

"Are you saying that the vote of a majority (51 or more) of the US Senate in favor of passing the bill is not valid? Seriously?"

Yep, it's valid. It is the way to pass popular legislation over the will of an uncompromising minority. But let's see how it works in the case of the current healthcare legislation. An overwhelming majority of legislators has to actually bend rules (you got that, a majority must bend the rules) to pass legislation that has been shown in poll after poll to be unpopular with the majority of Americans. Which majority do you think is the most important in this representative republic of ours?

"Al Cazam" = Steve Green."

No, His heads not pointy enough!