Bloody Bill Kristol claims he didn't watch any of the Health Care Summit, but that didn't stop him from giving Chris Wallace his critique of the event. If he didn't watch it, how does he know how the President, Ryan and Alexander did? And of course him saying he didn't watch it didn't stop Chris Wallace from hanging on his every word while he explained what he thought about what he didn't watch.
WALLACE: Have you been clarified, Bill?
KRISTOL: No, but I didn't watch it, so I... I have a life, you know, and -- you compared it at the beginning of the hour to a dog-and- pony show, and I thought to myself, "That's really an insult to dog-and- pony shows, you know?" Those are pretty -- I like the dog shows there on the Animal Planet.
But having said all that, of course, one has to say that it was -- many people were impressive. The president showed his usual professorial ability to sort of say certain things and highlight certain facts or alleged facts. Paul Ryan and Lamar Alexander and some of the Republicans did fine.
Look, the bottom line is, as one House Republican said to me Friday, unless this really changes the political dynamics, this bill will not pass the House. I mean, it passed barely three months ago and the bill was less popular -- less unpopular three months ago than it is today. That's the big story. The president gave a speech September 9th, the huge health care speech, to Congress. Right around then the numbers were about even, do you approve or disapprove of Obama's health care proposal. Two months later, it had gone negative. Now it's as negative as it's ever been.
The more people see it, the less they like it. Unless that summit sort of magically changes that dynamic, I do not believe that they will pass in the House and the Senate on a party-line vote something that is...
WALLACE: Well, I...
KRISTOL: ... really unpopular.
WALLACE: ... think everybody would agree it did not -- it was not a huge game-changer, the summit. So under those circumstances, why would they go ahead and try to pass this through reconciliation, the whole shebang, the whole comprehensive whole plan?
KRISTOL: Well, just two things. It's not a game-changer, but they think -- the Democrats -- that a lot of the problems the health care bill has picked up is because of the process, it's been a mess, the special deals. I think the problem is more substantive.
If the problem was process, that summit might have helped -- nice, courteous six-hour discussion, the president being respectful to his opponents. In that respect, they may have done themselves a little good.
I think at the end of the day people don't like the bill and it's not going to change because of the -- because of the summit.
