After Thursday's big health care discussion among the President, leading Democrats, and leading Republicans, not much has changed. Republicans are claiming victory, but how silly is it to suggest the Democratic initiative for the talks, issued weeks in advance with full public discussion of the public and political goals, could be an "ambush?" Or, with that much advance notice, how dumb would Republicans have to be to walk into such an "ambush?" (Don't answer that!)
Democrats are claiming victory, but the suggestion that Obama was professorial, or put the Republicans in their place like errant children, is not necessarily a positive. Americans generally don't want intelligence in their Presidents; they prefer a studied indifference to "book-l'arnin'" (thus Bush over Gore, Eisenhower over Stevenson) or someone who can successfully disguise the fact that he has any (Clinton made people believe that "Rhodes Scholar" meant he had worked for the Arkansas Highway Department during his high school years).
Politically, it seems the Democrats gained the edge (and it would be odd if they didn't, with the benefit of an incumbent President leading the discussion) - enough to demonstrate the utter uninterestedness of Republican leaders in making any but the most minor cosmetic changes in health care. They now have a little political cover for proceeding down the reconciliation path, if they can get their recalcitrant blue dogs to get on board.
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