Obama Summons the Media

And he wants them to televise a meeting between him and the Congressional leaders from both parties:

President Barack Obama is planning to host a televised meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on health care reform.

The Feb. 25 meeting is an attempt to reach across the aisle but not a signal that the president plans to start over, as Republicans have demanded, a White House official said.

“I want to come back [after the Presidents Day congressional recess] and have a large meeting — Republicans and Democrats — to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward,” Obama said in an interview with Katie Couric during CBS’s Super Bowl pre-game show Sunday.

Obama said he wants to “look at the Republican ideas that are out there.”

“If we can go, step by step, through a series of these issues and arrive at some agreements, then, procedurally, there’s no reason why we can’t do it a lot faster the process took last year,” he said.

In a statement, the official said, “What the president will not do is let this moment slip away. He hopes to have Republican support in doing so — but he is going to move forward on health reform.”

I guess Obama liked the way the Q&A at the GOP retreat went so he wants to try it again on a bigger scale. At this point I'm not sure there's anything he can say to Republicans that will bring them around to supporting any form of Obamacare, and he really wants that to happen to inoculate his party before the November elections. I think he still imagines himself quite the persuasive speaker and one who can charm the GOP into going along in the name of bipartisanship.

I don't think it will work.