Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R., Mich.) just called National Review Online from the House GOP retreat in Baltimore. President Obama, he says, is still shaking hands, and GOP members are milling about. McCotter calls the early afternoon exchange between the president and House Republicans nothing more than a “reprise of the State of the Union” that did little to mend the GOP’s “very real, very deep differences with the president on important principles.” Pundits, he cautions, should not take too much away from the session: “In fairness to the president and the members, this was not designed to be a forum for a breakthrough or a negotiation,” he says. “It was a conversation, a first step — an invitation graciously offered and graciously accepted.”

“The president has his principled positions, which we believe are fundamentally wrong,” says McCotter. “It won’t be us, or the American people, who ends up giving in to his approach.” Talk, he says, will only go so far for the Democrats and Obama if they’re unwilling to change their policies. “If the public continues to see the Democrats working against their interests, we’ll have a lot more Scott Browns emerging before November. Nothing significant at this point can be accomplished absent an election.”