Stewart is such a self-deluding hack. It’s not like the Republican health care ideas were hidden in a cave since Obama took office and now he needs to bring them into a televised debate to learn about them. On the contrary, Obama deliberately took a hands-off approach and allowed the most liberal members of his party, lead by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, to basically run the show on health care reform. So, of course not a single Republican proposal (such as creating a nationwide insurance market, etc.) was entertained, and even fairly liberal Republicans like Sen. Olympia Snowe were left out in the cold.

And a year later, nothing has been done, not because of Republicans, but because of Obama’s own party. The Democrats have had bigger majorities in Congress than Republicans had under eight years of Bush, but have been unable to get anything passed because far-left Democrats (the ones Obama’s own Chief of Staff recently called “f——— retards”) and “Blue Dog” Democrats (who realized that supporting a bill that poll after poll shows the public doesn’t want would hurt their reelection chances in the more conservative states they hail from) couldn’t agree a compromise.

So now, after huge defeats in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, Obama suddenly wants to bring Republicans into the fold for a good-faith discussion of his plan? If so, you’d expect him to be willing to start the discussions from scratch, which he’s not. Instead, he’s centering the debate around the liberal Senate plan and even more liberal House plan, both of which are antithetical to conservative free market-oriented solutions and include zero Republican input. And Stewart acts like Republicans have no reason to be skeptical.

Meanwhile, an aide to Nancy Pelosi revealed that Democrats are quietly pushing ahead with a plan to pass the Senate bill in reconciliation.