The White House expected a slam-dunk at Thursday's health summit -- another tour-de-force by President Obama that would convince rank-and-file Democrats in Congress that the time's come to push the reform bill through. That didn't happen -- but the push is still on.
The president's advisers seemed to expect the Blair House event to repeat President Obama's triumph at last month's House Republican retreat in Baltimore. But there, he was on stage, flanked by flags and behind a microphone and podium looking down on Republicans who were sitting around tables at lunch.
The staging there put that GOP crowd at a disadvantage, subordinating substance to style. Thursday's gathering was a different story.
With the president and members of Congress all around a table talking with each other as equals, it was clear that Republicans held their own on health care -- an issue they're clearly taking ownership of. They got far less than half the airtime, but still succeeded in making coordinated arguments on behalf of a step-by-step approach to reform.