The Return Of The King

Obama goes into the House Republican retreat, Republicans figure they've got him in the lion's den and they can televise him getting his ass kicked live with no TelePrompTer.

Only the complete opposite of that happened.

President Obama defended his health care plan Friday as centrist but said Republicans had presented it as "some Bolshevik plot" and called on lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to stop demonizing each other.

"We've got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality," he said, speaking to House Republicans at their annual retreat in Baltimore.

"If the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then don't have a lot of room to negotiate with me."

He said even Republicans who vote with the Obama administration become politically vulnerable in their own base.

"You've given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion," he said.

Obama said Republicans and Democrats both need "to think about tone" in debate.

"This is part of what's happened in our politics, where we demonize the other side so much that when it comes to actually getting things done, it becomes tough to do."

Obama said he has embraced some GOP approaches on health care. "When you say I ought to be willing to accept Republican ideas on health care, let's be clear -- I have. Bipartisanship, not for its own sake, but to solve problems," he said.

"From the start, I sought out and supported ideas from Republicans. I even talked about an issue that has been a holy grail for a lot of you, which was tort reform, and said that I'd be willing to work together as part of a comprehensive package to deal with it. "

Obama walks in there and just pummels the crap out of them.  Live.  In color.  This is the Obama we needed to see time and time again, the smashmouth Obama that kicked McCain's ass in the debates up and down, the one that called out the endless bullshit from the GOP.  It was so bad for the Wingers that FOX News bailed on the event halfway through.

Welcome back, Obama I Voted For.  I've missed you.  Now get this stuff passed.

[UPDATE 1:58 PM] The Village Sensible Centrists are going to squee themselves to death over this display of bipartisan outreach.  The progressives are still squeeing because Obama punched most of the GOP in the mouth and then turned around and went out of his way to acknowledge the few serious Republicans who did have good health care ideas, like Rep. Paul Kirk.  And the Wingers are going to be pissed.

Of course, FOX News cut away before the second half of the event where Obama really lit up the room...so of course to them it never happened.  Even better, Karl Rove's on completely ignoring the President's Q&A session and attacking him anyway.  The most trusted name in Obama Derangement Syndrome.  They Report, You Decide They Are Morons.

[UPDATE 3:21 PM] Transcript of the speech and the Q&A session.  As BooMan notes, the exchange between Obama and Rep. Jeb Hensarling is an outright classic.  Obama roflstomps the guy.

[UPDATE 3:36 PM]  Steve Benen wraps it up:

I'm reasonably certain I've never seen anything like it. GOP House members were fairly respectful of the president, but pressed him on a variety of policy matters. The president didn't just respond effectively, he delivered a rather powerful, masterful performance.

It was like watching a town-hall forum where all of the questions were confrontational, but Obama nevertheless just ran circles around these guys. I can only assume caucus members, by the end of the Q&A, asked themselves, "Whose bright idea was it to invite the president and let him embarrass us on national television?"

Note, however, that this wasn't just about political theater -- it was an important back-and-forth between the president and his most forceful political detractors. They were bringing up routine far-right talking points that, most of the time, simply get repeated in the media unanswered. But in Baltimore, the president didn't just respond to the nonsense, he effectively debunked it.

Republicans thought they were throwing their toughest pitches, and Obama -- with no notes, no teleprompter, and no foreknowledge -- just kept knocking 'em out of the park.

Amen. Best performance from Obama since he took office.  I've been saying that the President needed to use the bully pulpit to get his message out, unfiltered, and do so in a way that debunks the Village GOP talking points.  Today was exactly what he needed and what America needed.

More.  Please.   Make this a regular feature.