House GOP-ers: Start Over And We'll Come To The Table. White House: No.

Someone really needs to explain the ideas of negotiation and compromise to the Boehner and Cantor, especially when you don't have the ability to impose your will.

Grabbing the wheel and steering the car into a bridge is not decisive leadership.

Republicants have destroyed the very fabric of this country through fear and intimidation and they should be sent to their rooms for a timeout until they have something constructive to add to the dialog.

I really do not get the purpose of this meeting. Just a waste of time.

http://randomthoughtstd.blogspot.com/

Any, I repeat, any agreement on the part of the WH or Dems to "start over" and/or "take reconciliation off of the table" based on a "pledge" of support from the Rethugs would be the final, complete and total death of HCR now and for a generation.

Anyone who thinks Boehener and McConnell are to be trusted and are not inclined to agree now and then cast “Nay” votes later is truly “drinking the Kool-aid.” They can and will come up with any number of plausible justifications that will be bought by the MSM and voting public for their duplicity. They always do.

I think they should start over

have parallel committees

one negotiate in good faith with Republicans to come up with a bi partisan plan

and the other committee will come up with a progressive health care reform bill which could pass reconciliation -

and basically tell republicans if they don't vote in significant numbers on the bi partisan plan - it will be shelved and the reconciliation plan will be passed

Dems need to start talkign about having a "up or down vote".

Need to repeat it 1000 times.

for pete's sake obama, wise up already! no matter what you do to include the gop, they will have an excuse to continue being obstructionists. the heck with 'em! just do what the voters asked you to do!

The reports, debates, and commentary are going around in circles - here on TPM and elsewhere; perhaps including the White House.

The problem is not necessarily with communication or leadership, but with the bill and the strategy that produced it. Whatever the details, the probable compromise between House and Senate version was undoubtedly worth passing, but Rahm and friends played an extremely risky, insider game to get it done, Fatally, they took these risks without fully recognizing them or having a backup plan in case of failure.

A complex, tightly wound tactical plan like the one they chose is highly vulnerable to failure, even if every step of it, looked at in isolation, appears to be the best gamble. This is well known, but often forgotten in both business and politics by people whose attention becomes too narrowly focused on the work of the day. Meanwhile, everybody who raises larger questions of strategy (hello, Dr. Dean) is brushed off as an obstacle to execution. If the strategic critics prove correct, they are accused of "Monday morning quarterbacking."

Nassim Taleb ("short US treasuries as long as Summers is in charge") is useful on the more general question about how to judge any strategy. He points out that retrospective excuses are valueless in judging performance; the only thing that matters is a record of accurate prediction through varying conditions. In other words, it is hard to win trust, but easy to lose it. This is not a matter of morality ("oh, I feel so _betrayed_"). It's just the logic of decision making.

In other words, the current team and the current strategy are discredited. The sooner Obama makes a clear shift the better. It's no good whining about the Republicans. The Republicans are part of reality. As somebody, I think perhaps Nate Silver, memorably said during the campaign, in regard to people who seemed to want the refs to step in and call more fouls: "nobody is going to save you."

If you are getting beaten, you change. This health care bill and the strategy that produced it is getting mauled like kitten in a dog fight. Telling the kitten to fight back is rather beside the point.

If the republicans participate, it will be interesting to see whether Obama has an easier time with them or the Democrats.

Isn't this still all about delay? All the GOP is really interested in is slow-walking this thing, hopefully throught the mid-terms. At some point, and maybe it's finally nearly hear, the White House is going to have to tell the American people "We tried, but these people are just not serious about getting anything done. I tried to be nice, but THEY LOST THE ELECTION and they want to TELL ME how it's going to be." This should have been done a year ago. I hate that Obama even tried to work with them, but he did; it didn't work. Let's move on.

The Republicans really should rename their party, Reprobates.

Robert Gibbs: "What he will not do, however, is walk away from reform and the millions of American families and small business counting on it."

Someone needs to tug on the coat tail of Gibbs. Obama has already walked away, and continues to increase his distance from the American People.

Obama has been anything BUT the change we voted for. He and his Democratic Party has shown us mealy mouthed timidity and equivocation supporting the status quo and the Corporate interests that benefit from the status quo.

I knew he would not take us where the idealists projected he would with their lofty hopes and dreams.

I just never thought it would be this bad.

If we're going to have an update with a blatantly false quote from Michael Steele, can we it at least include a link (like this, for example) that shows that he's lying?

I salute the efforts of Freeman and stb above. I feel that the President has let us down, but I think the insurance industry has just handed him the golden key to getting reform passed. Why would Anthem do this right now? It's obviousl that they believe they can get away with it. If the Democrats can't show them the error in that kind of thinking, then they HAVE won. So what's it gonna be?

This is a hollow threat because even Republicans know they will get killed if they walk away from this obvious bipartisan move from Obama. It's all a lie...

http://www.political-buzz.com/

Bipartisanship is clearly not the way out as the GOPers are a whole bunch of unrepentant Bushists. What the Dems should do --- and what they actually should also have done during the Bush era - is to copy the core tactics of the GOPers: grab the mic and argue your case as best you can, using colorful and accessible language. The major problem with the Obama administration and the Dem majorities in both legislative chambers is focus too much of their attention and effort on finding a way out of the legislative labyrinth, thus allowing the GOPers to take over the mic and shape public opinions. When a clear majority of the American people are with you, it will be hard for the GOPers to portray otherwise and will make it unnecessary for the Bluedogs to run for the hills. Obama is Dem's greatest communicator. Yet the whole of last year he allowed himself to be occupied by so many issues (and why did he go to Africa in the midst of the health care debate anyhow?) rather than amplifying his case. The Dems should also have talking points and make sure national-level Dem politicians - Robert Gibbs, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and the likes - hammer them home.