It probably won't be surprising to learn that Repubicans were trashing the summit before it concluded and before it even started. It probably won't be surprising that Lamar Alexander was lying when he said reform would make premiums go up and Barack Obama was telling the truth. The same amount of coverage would cost less; some people might buy better coverage as a result of lower costs, but they would still be getting more for the same amount of money. It probably won't be surprising that NPR was rather muddled and timid in their fact-checking. (Substitute "highly deceptive" or "wrong" for "lying" if you want, but that would mean that Alexander was rather dumb or ill-prepared on a central point for the Republicans' opening statement, and all the other Republicans magically made basically the same mistake.)
Meanwhile, true to form, right-wingers continued their War on Compassion in mocking Louise Slaughter and the woman she mentioned using her dead sister's dentures. See Balloon Juice, No More Mister Nice Blog and Digby for more.
Digby also has sharp posts here and here on the optics of the summit. (I linked the contrasting Krugman and Brooks responses in an earlier post.) Greg Sargent has a number of good posts on moving forward. I agree with his take that Obama's summation was mainly telling the GOP it's over. Sargent also notes the public supports reconciliation if they like the bill, and reports that Obama plans to annouce the way forward this coming week. Good. "Pass the Damn Bill."
Lastly, as usual, The Daily Show offered some of the best coverage on the summit:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Summit's Eve | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Bipartisan Health Care Reform Summit 2010 | ||||
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