I think Republicans have no choice but to go, but that doesn’t mean they have to play from Obama’s script. Or so I argue in my column today. A reader responds:

Dear Mr. Goldberg,
Your health summit column was interesting,but. Obama will control the location and the format. He will be one man standing against a party of,” cold hearted obstructionists”. The summit will be followed by a quick,”see I tried,” ending with the House adopting the Senate version via reconciliation. That is the only reason for the so called summit. Although the Republicans can’t say no to the summit, they should pay a lot of attention to their own staging. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they can compete with Obama in a public forum, particularly with the media spin. It’s a no win situation.

I think the reader is basically right, except for the no-win situation part. Assuming this is all a cynical kabuki dance, I don’t think the GOP has to “win.” It merely needs to mount a preventative defense. I don’t think that’s an impossible task.