Healthcare summit: GOP hopes to avoid another Baltimore

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As the summit approached, Republicans worried that the event would be shaped to provide the kind of platform that President Obama had a few weeks ago in Baltimore, where he stood on a stage in a hotel ballroom and took questions from GOP members of the House.

From a Republican perspective, the optics weren’t great. Obama, literally, towered over the members, microphone in hand, standing throughout as the members were seated, conducting the session as if he was hosting his own version of ‘Oprah,’ dominating the conversation.

Now, at the summit, the president just signaled that he is reserving the right to counter Republican arguments as he sees fit, meaning that if he chooses to, he could again serve as a one-man counteroffensive. This time, of course, he’s sitting down. But he knows no one is about to interrupt him. We’ll watch how this dynamic plays out.

-- James Oliphant