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President Obama hosts his big Health Care Summit this Thursday at Blair House, just across from the White House. In theory it's to provide one last chance for Capitol Hill Democrats and Republicans to gather, discuss competing plans, find what common ground they can, and then move forward towards enacting meaningful Health Care Reform (HCR).
Some believe this is a Presidential stroke of genius to take his ideas to the People and highlight GOP intransigence; in doing so, HCR will get that last push it needs to get over the hump. Others, like me, believe this is demonstrates the President's well-intended but utterly inexplicable obsession with using sweet reason to bring some portion of Capitol Hill Republicans into the fold; of convincing them that he's really a Fair & Likable Guy, that he Respects them, that he is, indeed, Willing to Listen to Them. Of course, those are all fine sentiments for a President, for anyone, to have, as long as the person across the table is negotiating in Good Faith, which the GOP is not.