A bipartisan summit no one believed would change any minds. A Democratic Party who couldn't pass Obamacare even when they had a super majority. A president who is allegedly smart enough to see that he has lost the approval of most Americans on this issue. A set of rules in the Senate that offer the opposition several opportunities to block Obamacare's passage in spite of the reconciliation process. And yet the headlines blare that President Obama's intent is to push ahead. Why?

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There are a few theories making the rounds on cable news stations, internet message boards and around office water coolers. Among the most popular: The president believes he can convince enough of his fellow Democrats to vote his way. The president believes he can sway public opinion by putting Republican dissent on display. The president will eventually settle for Obamacare-Lite; a smaller, less expensive, more reasonable reform bill that won't allow the government power grab he's been selling for a year. The president is delusional.

And then there's the much more plausible theory: President Obama is well aware he has lost all the battles and the war for Obamacare. He will fail, like many Democrats before him, to force the first and largest step to socialized medicine onto the American people. All that is left is how history (both near and far term) will record this epic failure and so the president is doing what he can to influence the narrative.

One of the last chapters in the saga will be the recent televised health care summit. While it was an obvious waste of time for anyone who has been paying close attention, the summit might be remembered by casual observers (i.e. the majority of the American electorate) as a seemingly sincere attempt by the president at both bipartisanship and transparency. No help for Obamacare but possibly some help for Mr. Obama's sagging approval numbers.

The second to last chapter of the Democrats' preferred narrative would be final votes in the House and Senate on a bill Democrats know they don't have enough votes from their own party members to pass. How will this exercise in futility and seemingly public failure help the Democrats? According to Representative Jason Altmire (D-Pennsylvania), "People who voted 'yes' [the first time the bills came up for a vote] would love a second bite at the apple to vote 'no' this time, because they went home and got an unpleasant experience" because of their votes. (source) Will that reversal of course be enough to save some of the doomed re-election campaigns of incumbent Democrats who have followed President Obama to the edge of a political cliff? Maybe. But at least they will have the chance to pretend they were on the right side of Obamacare at its bitter end.

And then there will be the very last chapter of this saga: President Barack Obama's inevitable address to the nation in which he portrays himself as both the hero and the victim of the piece. He'll try to blame his own failure on former President Bush. He'll tout his own wisdom and brilliance then he'll shake a metaphorical finger at us all for being too stupid to recognize his wisdom and brilliance. He will toss some sarcastic insults in the general direction of the vast right wing conspiracy and finish by vowing to keep fighting for his far left agenda (though he'll come up with some euphemistic phrase for it). Then he will walk off the stage with the self satisfied smugness of a professor instead of the presidential air of a capable leader.

By orchestrating these final chapters of his failure on his signature domestic issue, perhaps President Obama believes the voters will forget that his plan from the beginning was to ignore their wishes and ram the unpopular, obscenely expensive legislation down their throats. Which I realize brings us right back to the "president is delusional" theory.