Last night, I wrote about the president's attempt at a bipartisan way forward on healthcare and how it's probably just cover to pass the Senate bill and a reconciliation package of fixes. Greg Sargent seems to be thinking the same thing:
It’s possible, though, that this is all about laying the groundwork for pursuing a Dem-only reconciliation solution later. Such an effort, should it happen, will inevitably be portrayed as yet another partisan back-room effort to ram reform through. So perhaps the White House hopes a very public gesture of bipartisanship and transparency now will undercut those attacks and allow Dems to argue that they had no choice but to move forward alone.
I'm looking forward to that moment in the televised summit when the president presses the Republicans on whether they'd vote for the bill. I strongly believe that this is the whole point of the strategy -- expose and emphasize the fact that regardless of what's in the bill, they won't vote for it. This is crucial.