The elephant at the health-care summit

By E.J. Dionne Jr.
WashPost
Monday, February 22, 2010

This week, particularly the health-care summit President Obama has called for Thursday, will determine the shape of American politics for the next three years.

The issue is whether the summit proves to be the turning point in a political year that is moving decisively in the Republicans' direction. If the summit fails to shake things up and does not lead to the passage of a comprehensive health-care bill, Democrats and Obama are in for a miserable time for the rest of his term.

Republicans know this and are doing all they can to undermine, discount, discredit and back away from the encounter.

They are insisting, as House Minority Leader John Boehner has said, that the only test of the Democrats' seriousness is whether they are willing to "scrap" the health care bills that have already passed and "start over." Pushing their proposals through, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted on "Fox News Sunday," would be "arrogant."

(More here.)