SUMMIT OVER – AT 5:23 P.M. ET:  The health-care summit is over, and we've been monitoring reaction.

First, it wasn't terribly interesting.  Health care, though vital, is not sizzling subject like beating the terrorists.  No one reading an actuarial table ever said, "I can't put it down."

That being said, the Republicans clearly won the day.  While I was disappointed that they did not bring a single coherent program, wrapped in a ribbon, they did present their ideas intelligently, proving that they have them and are ready to deal.

Also, what did come out of the day was the bipartisan notion that our system is in serious need of reform.  I'm glad to see that the GOP is no longer automatically supporting everything that "free enterprise" does.  Health insurance companies are notoriously unpopular because some are notorious.  Republicans realize that and realize that legal fixes are required.  Good for them. 

What also came out of the day was the impression of a Democratic Party that is unfit to govern.  Health reform, as an issue, is exceedingly popular across the political spectrum, as polls show.  But the Dems have run it into the ground with their extremism and arrogance.  We did not need a 2,000-page bill to introduce needed fixes.  We got one because the left wing of the Democratic Party, the ruling wing, didn't much care if Americans understood what was being done, and really didn't want to discuss their plans.  They knew best, and that was that.

There was no political progress made by either side today.  Now, everything depends on what votes are available in both houses of Congress.  We have some reason to be confident, at least today, that the Democrats don't have the votes to pass their 2,000-page monstrosity, and that smaller measures, targeted at individual problems, will, as Republicans advised, be the route to take.

February 25,  2010