Maggie's Farm

President Obama epitomizes Abba Eban’s summation of the Palestinians, never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Palestinians insist on destroying Israel, regardless of concessions, declining steps that improve relations, repeating bromides that fail to meet facts.  President Obama, likewise, insists on a total upheaval of modern health care, regardless of compromises, declining widely supported incremental steps, repeating support for the various Democrat health care bills whose details are overwhelmingly rejected by Americans.

Instead of cooperating for widely supported steps to improve health care, President Obama called for a televised half-day “summit” in which Republicans are supposed to take as their starting point the Democrats’ health care bills, instead of starting from scratch with Republican proposals. The New York Times labels it a “gambit” in the first paragraph of its report. Then,

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said in a statement that he welcomed the bipartisan meeting on health care and called on the president to begin the dialogue “by shelving the current health spending bill.”

“The fact is Senate Republicans held hundreds of town halls and met with their constituents across the country last year on the need for health care reform, outlining ideas for the step-by-step approach that Americans have asked for,” Mr. McConnell said. “And we know there are a number of issues with bipartisan support that we can start with when the 2,700-page bill is put on the shelf.”

When asked by Ms. Couric if he would agree to discard the bill and start over, the president said he would not. The starting point, aides said, would be with the proposals that passed the House and Senate.

Obama insists on 1967 or 1947 lines despite “facts on the ground” a la Palestinians, instead of working together.  Indeed, as Senators Grassley and Snowe found when trying to work together, the Democrats my-way-or-the-highway forced them to take the high way, the Democrats taking the low way.

I outlined last Friday, in a 711 word op-ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune, ten separable, incremental steps to health care improvements.  They don’t require thousands of tiny type pages of imposed, centralized, statist regulations like the Democrats’ schemes.  They don’t require throwing out the baby with the bath water.  They build on what successfully exists, which most Americans are satisfied with.  Most Americans agree with these steps.  They are not partisan.  Indeed, they contain many elements of Democrat preferences. There are other such steps that a true summit could address.

Instead, Obama wants a campaign-mode, one-sided event, never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Jules Crittendon adds an "ouch" and then some to Obama's "reality TV."