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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama scolded Virgina Republican Rep. Eric Cantor for the stack of paper he brought with him to the health summit, calling it the type of political stunt that gets in the way of lawmakers having a serious conversation. [snip]

"Are we on seven-second delay?"--Mark Halperin on Morning Joe, prefacing his criticism of Pres. Obama's performance at the health care summit. Halperin was surely being facetious, but the point about MSNBC's pro-Obama predilection was made. The Time editor went on to rather comprehensively pan PBO's petulant performance. His comments were preceded by a clip of Pres. Obama rudely reminding Sen. John McCain of just who had won the presidential election. View video here.

President Obama said he came to listen to Republicans at his bipartisan health-care summit yesterday, but he ended up in a long-winded debate. "Should people in Washington decide exactly how this works?" Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican of Wisconsin, asked the president. "Paul . . ." Obama began, but then switched gears and responded to Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell's earlier complaint that Democrats were dominating the summit by taking up twice as much time as Republicans. "There was an imbalance on the opening statement -- because I'm the president," Obama replied. "I didn't count my time in dividing it...

Yesterday's health sum mit was mind-bogglingly, soul-achingly, sand- poundingly, metaphysically and ontologically boring. At one point, I could swear, Sen. Mitch McConnell was counting fibers in the carpet just to stay awake. Of course, real negotiations never happen in front of cameras, because to cut a real political deal in public is the political equivalent of cutting your own throat. But just because the scripts were written beforehand doesn't mean that everyone's lines worked. Obama opened by striking a pose of plausible fairness and open-mindedness but grew more and more snarky and less presidential as the event wore on. His...

Brand new Fox News Contributor Sarah Palin has condemned Barack Obama as having frustrated ordinary Americans with his policy of refusing to answer questions about reconciliation from Republicans at his health summit. In post-summit analysis delivered on Hannity, Palin was very disapproving of Obama and his fellow Democrats, too, citing them for failing to be productive or fruitful and obsessed with only political posturing. Realizing a good line when she heard one, Palin gave credit to fellow Republican Michele Bachmann as she repeated her line that last summer's pathetic "beer summit"—done to ineffectively try to fix the PR damage done...

Republicans are dithering over whether to accept President Obama's invitation to a Feb. 25 health-care summit. The White House says the health bills passed with Democratic support—the Pelosi and Reid bills—will be the basis for talks. Republicans should just say no to a summit based on these bills. These bills reduce American freedom. Forcing people to buy insurance and empowering government to dictate what your doctor does—key elements of these bills—need to be off the table. There can be no negotiation between coercion and freedom.

Earlier this week we reported Nancy Pelosi’s top health care aide Wendell Primus admitted top Democrats have already decided on the strategy to pass the Senate's pro-abortion, government-run health care bill. In fact, he said Obama's bi-partisan out reach is all a trick. The basic plan is Pelosi will twist arms to get the house to pass the Senate version of the bill, plus another bill representing changes to the Senate bill that the leadership of both houses have already agreed to. The Senate will then use reconciliation to pass that second bill. And the President will sign first the...