To answer the question, I think many were trying to listen and really want to hear. They are concerned with what they will stand to lose financially and if they will still have access to good health care if the Democrat reform bill passes.  They worry about how much more power the government will gain over their lives and how taxes will rise.  Yet, the Health Care Reform Bill is like a mountain whose heights and intricacies they seem unable to scale.  It is like a locked box that none of them has keys to open.  And sadly our President, Speaker Pelosi, and Senate leader Reid are not helping provide transparency.

By scheduling a six-hour "listening" session in the middle of America's workday, the President assured that few of the American people would be able to listen.  Probably the least appealing and convenient format for people to hear and ponder this serious issue was listening to Republican and Democrat leaders wrangling and posturing for hours.  But surprisingly, Americans were still interested enough in the issue of health care reform that many listened.  Callers and Twitter users flooded the lines of Fox News when asked to comment.  They were listening and wishing to know what was in the mysterious 2,700 page bill lying in front of several of the Republican members.

Here are my problems with the Blair House Health Care Reform summit and why I think it failed to educate the public adequately:

~ This summit made it too easy for the President to proclaim that Republicans had their chance to cooperate but stubbornly refused to do so. 

~ The President was able to dominate the meeting and keep inconvenient facts from being presented.

~ With the liberal media likely to give him a favorable spin, the President could get away with being slightly impetuous and with bending the facts.  Most people would have to rely merely on reports of events as seen by the network newscasters.  Few would see how he condemned those leaders who actually brought the 2,700 page bill--tabbed with sections they questioned--as merely employing an annoying "prop."  This showed how little seriousness he gave to openness.  The bill should have been opened and discussed.

~ Under this forum the President could claim unfair tactics were used by Republicans, such as Senators or Representatives actually bringing along tall copies of the bill or having their own facts and figures to present.

~ Because he alone controlled the time given each speaker, President Obama could complain that Republicans were taking too long to explain a complex issue and shut them off.

~ During the conference, the seemingly frustrated President dropped hints that he would have to push through this bill because the Republicans were not willing to change.  Those Republicans!  To me, it was obvious that this was a foregone conclusion to which he had come before the first words of the conference were spoken. 

Because the real, hidden issue before us--far beyond health care--is the "state-ism" that most liberal Democrats want to force upon Americans, it is important we hear the balancing viewpoints of conservatives before it it too late and the ink has dried on yet another Presidential bill signing.

Since health care takes nearly one-sixth of our national spending dollar, protecting this huge portion of the economy from government takeover is an urgent concern for all Americans.  Passing the Democrat Health Care Reform bill would mean another 17% of our economy that President Obama and his Democrat cohorts would place under federal government control.  This would also take health choice from local and private control and place decisions under elitist, unelected government bureaucracy.   They would replace the  private doctor/patient/family decisions and impose the rule of public governmental boards over access and medical treatment.

The federal government over the past year has taken control of the banks and General Motors, to mention two examples of its encroachment on the private sector.  We are nearing the halfway tipping point, in which the government will control and effectively own over half of our nation's resources.  This could mean the end of private enterprise and ownership--two very important bulwarks of self-government.  Under the current exceptionally liberal leadership, it appears Democrats will stop at nothing to gain control over Americans' lives. 

As Senator Lamar Alexander pointed out, it appears that the people are trying every means possible--through protests, town hall meetings, tea parties, and floods of calls to their representatives in Washington--to say that they do not want this enormous health care bill.  Americans want to listen, but all they get are selling points from the Democrats.  The American people may hope for health care reform, but right now they are disgusted that the politicians in Washington seem not to be listening to them and what they want.