Frum Liveblogs the Health Summit

UPDATED: This summit is turning into Baltimore in reverse: the Republicans are winning by giving the lie to accusations that they are angry ideologues.

Cantor deftly identifies the core Republican message: The federal government will henceforward define what is essential and what is not. This summit is turning into Baltimore in reverse: the Republicans are winning by giving the lie to accusations that they are angry ideologues.

Posted at 12:42pm

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Obama looking bored. Credit where due : He staved it off for 2 1/2 hours

Posted at 12:38pm via Twitter

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Obama slaps back: we're not campaigning any more. And then tells McCain he's engaged in the wrong debate. This is getting real ...

Posted at 12:33pm via Twitter

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"Can I just finish please?" McCain slaps down the president. When was the last time a senator did THAT?

Posted at 12:30pm via Twitter

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If Obama's strategic goal is to use this forum to expose Republicans as mindless obstructionists ... then he's losing.

Posted at 12:14pm

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While the negotiations continue, the press gets this hit from the GOP health summit communications team.

Posted at 11:28am

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If this is political theater, it is theater for people in full-body casts who can't reach the channel changer.

Posted at 11:21am via Twitter

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Reid's Doublethink on Reconciliation

Very pissy Harry Reid opening. Great respect AND admiration for Lamar Alexander. That means he's REALLY mad.  Reid says "we havent talked about reconciliation." Then "as the only solution." Then: "Not as if it's never been done before.

Posted at 10:48am via Twitter

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HCR summit helps me understand why we invented the 8-second soundbite.

Posted at 10:46am via Twitter

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The Cost of Transparency

If this White House meeting were being held in private, would the conferees have said ONE WORD of what they just spent the past 34 minutes saying? In private, they could proceed directly to the point, couldn't they?

Posted at 10:36am

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Lamar's Better Idea

The renunciation of reconciliation as a commitment for negotiation. The state of play now reminds us why the filibuster can be justified: because today's minority may be the majority in a very few months.

Posted at 10:32