Health care summit an image-shaping opportunity for President Obama

Republicans know that when they enter the Blair House Garden Room a few minutes before 10 o’clock on Thursday morning, they will be the public relations equivalents of Lilliputians.

President Obama has said that he has invited the opposition party to talk about health care for six hours straight, on live television, in the interests of bipartisanship.

Republicans not only don’t buy that — “I see this episode as more about showmanship than really bipartisanship,” Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican said in an interview – they are also aware that the event is a potential image bonanza for Obama.

Republicans are coming onto the president’s home turf, the 70,000 square foot compound of four row houses across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, owned by the government and used as a guest house for visiting heads of state.

Each and every detail – from how the room is set up and who sits where to where the TV and still cameras are positioned – will be determined largely by White House staff. And the subtopics to be discussed and format of the session were chosen by the White House without any input from Republicans, according to GOP aides.

“There’s absolutely nothing that’s not in [Obama’s] control,” said Greg Jenkins, a former television producer who went on to stage-manage the visual and logistical components of large events for former President George W. Bush.

Obama has “a tremendous opportunity to telegraph some important messages to the American people who are really going to be paying attention this Thursday,” Jenkins said.

And the more the conversation appears to be a “pretty free-flowing” exchange of ideas, as a White House official said it will be, the more Republicans know they will be at the president’s mercy.

Obama will moderate the discussion, which will take place with 37 members of Congressional leadership (21 Democrats and 17 Republicans) around tables set up in a hollow-square in the 42-foot by 36-foot Garden Room.

“Our members, unless they’re willing to go all David Gregory, they’re probably going to only get one retort” to Obama when he makes a point they want to respond to, a senior Republican leadership aide said.

“Members aren’t able to stand there and make 4,000 different points in one give and take,” the aide said. “Decorum and deference to the president puts him at a strategic advantage.”

A White House official waved off Republican concerns.

“This is going to be an open discussion. That’s the whole point,” he said.