NO PODIUM, NO TELEPROMPTER, NO PRESIDENT:

The next health fight: Summit leaves Dems stymied (GRACE-MARIE TURNER, February 27, 2010, NY Post)

The president's advisers seemed to expect the Blair House event to repeat President Obama's triumph at last month's House Republican retreat in Baltimore. But there, he was on stage, flanked by flags and behind a microphone and podium looking down on Republicans who were sitting around tables at lunch.

The staging there put that GOP crowd at a disadvantage, subordinating substance to style. Thursday's gathering was a different story.

With the president and members of Congress all around a table talking with each other as equals, it was clear that Republicans held their own on health care -- an issue they're clearly taking ownership of. They got far less than half the airtime, but still succeeded in making coordinated arguments on behalf of a step-by-step approach to reform.

The summit was not the game-changer the White House hoped it would be.

It could have been a glorified committee meeting if he'd ever run a committee before.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 28, 2010 8:31 AM