It wasn’t really effective governance, and — save for a few moments — it wasn’t even interesting television. So what exactly did President Obama’s health-care summit actually accomplish?
Well, it turned out not to be the political trap that Republicans had feared. Instead, they got a nationally broadcast TV platform — a forum they might not otherwise have ever received.
And the members of the GOP team clearly were prepared: Time after time, they scored telling points against Obama and Democratic Capitol Hill kingpins Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.
Moreover, Obama himself looked less like a president than like the moderator of some small-town community forum.
Nor did he particularly help himself by taking cheap shots — particularly at 2008 opponent John McCain, who rightly denounced the “unsavory” closed-door “deal-making” that bought moderate Democratic Senate votes to pass the health-care bill.
The GOP team also managed to call the president out on several blatant untruths — particularly on whether the Democratic plan would raise health-care premiums: Obama at first insisted the Congressional Budget Office “didn’t say the actual premiums would be going up,” then later conceded that it had.
So when all was said and done, what actually was accomplished by the seven-hour gabfest at Blair House?
Precious little.
The Democrats, arrogantly overconfident as always, were convinced their side, led by Obama, would give the Republicans a public humiliation — allowing them to rally their own more reluctant members and jump-start a health-care bandwagon.
It didn’t happen that way.
Instead, the GOP — by careful and effective presentations — reminded the American people (or those watching, anyway) why only 25 percent of them, according to the latest poll, actually support ObamaCare.
And why, as Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said, “This is a car that can’t be recalled and fixed.”