Obama To Hold Televised Health Care Summit

I think the Obama administration has learned an important lesson from the success of question time – Obama is the best salesman of Democratic ideas. We can’t rely on the news media to inform people anymore and question time allowed him to bypass the talking heads and talk straight to the American people. The Obama administration is planning to televise a Health Care Summit next week:

President Obama made a dramatic attempt to jump-start the stalled health care debate Sunday, inviting Republicans in Congress to a half-day summit on the subject to be televised live later this month.

The president made the offer in an interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric just hours before the Superbowl. Obama challenged Republicans to come to the discussion armed with their best ideas for how to cover more Americans and fix the health insurance system.

“I want to consult closely with our Republican colleagues,” Obama told Couric. “What I want to do is to ask them to put their ideas on the table… I want to come back and have a large meeting, Republicans and Democrats to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward.”

Hopefully this will allow Obama to explain exactly what’s in the health care bill and what’s not in it. It could also allow Obama to swat down some of the Republican nonsense and misinformation out there. Obama has challenged Congressional Republicans to bring on their ideas. I just hope this isn’t a prelude to smaller, weaker, crappier health care reform bills but instead is a way to sell comprehensive reform to the American people and to weak-kneed Democrats.