Carol Platt Liebau at Townhall.com hits the target with this observation from the recently concluded Healthcare Summit:

The President did plenty to diminish himself.  First, there was his lack of grace– announcing,”I’m the President!,” his testy reminder to John McCain about who won the election (reminiscent of his “I won” triumphalism immediately after inauguration), most notably – and his penchant for scolding everyone was on display.  Can anyone even imagine the really great presidents behaving this way?  Can you imagine Ronald Reagan, or FDR (or even JFK or George HW Bush or George W Bush) hectoring, lecturing and condescending so brazenly?

Having studied Ronald Reagan intently now for a number of years (I’m in the process of writing a book that may be finished before I turn 90), I can say for certain that Reagan would never have conducted himself the way this president does. Reagan’s hallmark was humility and concern for the nation. Obama’s most distinguishing feature is his arrogance and self-focus.

This summit, if we are to believe the polls, did virtually nothing for the Democrats. Every poll I’ve seen shows the public solidly opposed to passing Obamacare. Yet that doesn’t seem to phase either our president or his congressional allies. They seem determined to force the issue.

Notice the length of the bill. Just what is it they are trying to ram through?

The goal of the summit, of course, was to paint the Republicans as obstructionists. Well, sometimes there are things that ought to be obstructed.

The Republicans’ lack of cooperation with the Democrats’ plans is something for which we should be grateful. If Ronald Reagan could have been here to witness their strong stand, what would he have said?

So what was actually accomplished with this summit?

Quick, he needs some healthcare!

Well, it’s over. That highly anticipated summit on healthcare has gained its audience. It has achieved a notoriety that places it somewhere between Jimmy Carter’s malaise speech and Bill Clinton’s . . .  well, Bill Clinton’s anything.

I was able to avoid it entirely until I came home last evening and was caught unawares by President Obama’s closing remarks, which, remarkably, were all that anyone needed to hear the entire day. Why? Because he made it abundantly clear in those closing moments that unless the Republicans could agree with the Democratic approach—and soon—the Democrats were going to be forced to act by themselves.

I pity all those people who watched the daylong ordeal. All they had to do was tune in for those comments. The president clearly accomplished what he wanted, which was cover for himself and his party as they proceed to alter Senate rules and ram this thing through.

Now, it wasn’t all gloom, according to the analyses I heard. Republicans did make it clear they had an alternative. Hopefully, they scored some points with the public as they pushed for free-market solutions. Some of the excerpts I’ve seen show the Schoolmaster-in-Chief  more than a little perturbed at times. He still doesn’t know how to take criticism. He continues to believe he knows more than those little annoying people who try to mess up his plans.

Will his plans be messed up? The next few weeks will be critical.

I really don’t want to be cynical. I want government to work. I want to believe that when our president says he plans to cut spending, he means it. I also want to believe that he sincerely seeks solutions for healthcare from his political oppponents.

Well, I don’t classify myself as a cynic. I’m more of a student of human nature via my Biblical worldview. That tells me I need to be realistic, not gullible. Jesus even told His followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. I don’t seek harm for anyone, but I want to be wise as I survey the political landscape.

Wisdom, at this point, says not to believe the claims from the White House with respect to the desire to cut spending. The “freeze” announced recently didn’t apply to most of the federal budget, only to certain specified areas. But how many Americans know that?

No one who is serious about reining in government spending triples the deficit in one year. No one who is serious about reining in government spending considers placing Andy Stern, leader of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), on a commission to deal with the deficit. Stern’s union is one of the chief culprits in this tragi-comedy.

Let’s face it—Obama is addicted to spending because it’s part and parcel of his political philosophy. Consequently, his calls for restraint ring rather hollow.

He’s come a little late to the scene of the disaster.

In fact, President Obama has been so good at what he does—spend other people’s money—he probably deserves an honored place with other presidents.

Then there’s the attempt to revive a healthcare plan that the country already rejected. That doesn’t stop the president or his allies in Congress, where they are contemplating an end run around the rules to make it happen. Just when we thought we had dodged this bullet, we’re being ambushed by a “revised” plan that costs even more.

Yet today is the big day for the Healthcare Summit to which he’s invited Republicans. After he’s already released his new plan? Isn’t that somewhat backward?

I don’t think I’m being cynical in calling this a sham. I think I’m being realistic.

A decade ago, I used to watch MSNBC. I didn’t have much choice. Our cable company at the time didn’t offer Fox News, so if I wanted a news channel, I had to choose between CNN and MSNBC. What’s really interesting is that in the waning years of the 20th century, MSNBC was more balanced in its coverage than CNN. Well, CNN hasn’t changed—it’s still a liberal bastion—but MSNBC has made a calculated move to out-Left even CNN.

"Hardball" with Chris Matthews: A Ratings Flop

The primetime lineup has no balance at all. Hosts range from Leftist Chris Matthews to ultra-Leftist Keith Olbermann. The variety is invigorating.

Olbermann: How Left Can a Person Go?

Meanwhile, ratings for the network have plummeted. MSNBC is consistently in last place, with Fox sometimes quadrupling the MSNBC audience. Yet apparently this has not led to any new ideas in the heads of the executives who are running this empire into the ground. They seem to like being captains on a sinking ship.

Recently, one of my favorite cartoonists, Bruce Tinsley, captured the true spirit of MSNBC with these gems:

I love it.

Saturday night Glenn Beck gave the keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference. I watched it live primarily because I appreciate much of what Beck says. He also is quite entertaining in the way he makes his points—something that more people need to incorporate into their messages.

Beck has been in the forefront of illuminating the role of progressivism in American history and how it has returned with a vengeance under Barack Obama. He is correct in his analysis of its detrimental effects. He is also correct when he states that progressive views have infiltrated the Republican party as well as the Democrats, but he has a tendency to go too far.

Bill Bennett, former education secretary under Ronald Reagan, yesterday took Beck to task for eliminating all differences between Republicans and Democrats. I like what he had to say as well. Let me give you a sample:

For him to continue to say that he does not hear the Republican party admit its failings or problems is to ignore some of the loudest and brightest lights in the party. From Jim DeMint to Tom Coburn to Mike Pence to Paul Ryan, any number of Republicans have admitted the excesses of the party and done constructive and serious work to correct them and find and promote solutions. Even John McCain has said again and again that “the Republican party lost its way.” These leaders, and many others, have been offering real proposals, not ill-informed muttering diatribes that can’t distinguish between conservative and liberal, free enterprise and controlled markets, or night and day. Does Glenn truly believe there is no difference between a Tom Coburn, for example, and a Harry Reid or a Charles Schumer or a Barbara Boxer? Between a Paul Ryan or Michele Bachmann and a Nancy Pelosi or Barney Frank?

I’ve been disturbed by the attitude of “throw everyone out.” I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: don’t throw out the principled leaders along with the unprincipled. And if you believe there are no principled leaders, you’re not paying attention. You’re allowing your emotions to rule. Anger over what has transpired in this country is natural; anger that leads to irrational actions is foolishness.

Bennett adds,

A year ago, we were told the Republican party and the conservative movement were moribund. Today they are ascendant, and it is the left and the Democratic party that are on defense — even while they are in control. That’s quite an amazing achievement. But anyone who knows the history of this country and its political movements should not be surprised. America has a long tradition of antibodies that kick in. From Carter we got Reagan. And from Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama we took back a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, with midterm elections on the horizon that Republicans and conservatives are actually excited about, not afraid of.

I agree. Let’s not sound the death knell yet. By all means, warn with all our might—that’s what I do in this blog on a regular basis. But let’s be careful of our rhetoric.

As I noted above, I enjoy watching Beck. I agree with most of what he said at CPAC, and I wish others would be as bold. Yet even Beck needs to rethink some of what he is saying and take seriously serious critiques such as the one offered by Bennett. If the strengths of both could be combined, we would be the better for it.

It’s been suggested by some that President Obama really doesn’t need his teleprompter. Since all his messages have a similar theme, he can get by with much less.

That will certainly make it easier for him, and allow him to speak more spontaneously. Perhaps even the “uh” factor will be reduced.

Kidding aside, it is a fact that Obama continues to point to the Bush years as the reason for anything that is going wrong today. Too much spending? Why, that’s because of Bush, not us.

I am in complete agreement with the proposition that President Bush and the Republican Congress under him spent too much. They lost their way as they departed from basic principles. But the Republicans lost Congress in 2006, and Barack Obama has been president now for more than a year. Hasn’t the statute of limitations run out on this excuse? Will anyone in the mainstream media speak up and say “enough is enough”?

That may not be as much of an exaggeration as you think. Listen carefully and you may hear echoes of that theme in the coming months. When you don’t have the facts on your side, the easiest thing to do is to accuse critics of racism. I’m hopeful, though, that the majority are becoming more alert to this tactic, rendering it useless. We’ll see.