He Still Thinks We"re Stupid

The president's belated "outreach" to Congressional Republicans by inviting them to a health care "summit" later this month is being heralded by the usual suspects (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN et al) as an act of benevolence toward of bunch of obstructionist nay-sayers. As usual where the "mainstream" media are concerned, nothing could be further from the truth.

Unfortunately, at least some Republicans seem to be falling for Obama's call for a rap session to supposedly consider their ideas. Admittedly, it takes some fortitude to stand up not only to the president but to his snide, bullying minions who take great pleasure at putting Republicans on the defensive. The Obama strategy should be crystal clear to anyone who's paying attention: divide and conquer, as well as providing a cover for his partisan bill. After this faux summit, he can say, however disingenuously, that he tried to work with the Republicans and they refused to compromise.

The president's cover includes using the so-called summit as a diversion away from the behind-the-scenes maneuvering to still get some kind of Democrat-only heath care "reform" bill passed in the dead of some night in the near future when no one's paying attention until it's too late. In the mean time, the left-leaning polls actually try to claim that a majority of Americans want the parties to work together to iron out a "reform" bill of some sort, when in reality that's not the case at all. As Liz Cheney would point out, Obama's and media's false premise is that the currently-stalled bill is a good starting point, instead of something that belongs in the trash can.

Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio seems to have a properly wary attitude about what the president wants to accomplish at his summit. Let's hope that his fellow Republicans, by and large, follow his lead, and not worry about the media fallout or administration bullying. Let's also hope that the public sees through this phony show of a "come, let us reason together" attitude by a president who thus far has shown no inclination to do so.