Obama sucks up all the oxygen in the room

Here's John Dickerson on Slate with "GOP 1, Obama 1, Democrats 0"

This is why it wasn't a good day for congressional Democrats. According to strategists involved in 2010 races, fence-sitting Democrats needed to see Obama change the political dynamic. He needed to show how health care reform could be defended and how Republicans could be brought low. He did neither. White House aides and the president himself said he was going to press Republicans for how their plans would work, but he did that only twice - and mildly. There was no put-up-or-shut-up moment.

When Republicans failed to live up to their caricature, they put the Democrats into a bind because they can't just wave off the minority as reflexively obstructionist. Instead, the GOP bought genuine concerns to the table – concerns shared by many Americans – that were often waved off by Obama as "illegitimate" or "details" or "props."

But Obama doesn't have to face the voters in eight months; Congressional Democrats do and they can't depend on the personal magnetism of the One to help.

More - Megan McArdle has some thoughts.

And this - Daily Beast: "What was Obama thinking?" Specifically, he notes that the Republicans came prepared with facts while the Democrats relied on sob stories and "the infantilizing of a national audience."