BULLETIN – BREATHLESS REPORT – AT 8:18 A.M. ET:  A major breakthrough in government.  Read all about it, from The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — President Obama said Sunday that he would convene a half-day bipartisan health care session at the White House to be televised live this month, a high-profile gambit that will allow Americans to watch as Democrats and Republicans try to break their political impasse.

Or, as the philosopher Irving Berlin once wrote, "There's no business like show business."

Mr. Obama made the announcement in an interview on CBS during the Super Bowl pre-game show, capitalizing on a vast television audience.

This is about life and death matters.  What more important time to announce it than during the Super Bowl pre-game show.  That's what the pre-game is for.

He set out a plan that would put Republicans on the spot to offer their own ideas on health care and show whether both sides are willing to work together.

Oh come on.  They've been offering ideas for months, and have been ignored.   The Times is in high bias this morning.

Mr. Obama challenged Republicans to attend the meeting with their plans for lowering the cost of health insurance and expanding coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Republican leaders said they welcomed the opportunity and called on Democrats to start the debate from scratch, which the president said he would not do.

That is hilarious.  Freely translated, all the ridiculous notions that Dems have come up with this last year will still be there.  Just what the public is demanding.

COMMENT:  Look, this is the definition of a publicity stunt.  And half a day?  That's what health care gets?  Let the record show that the president probably devoted more time to the Super Bowl.

Joke.

February 8,  2010