I found last week’s column by Richard L. Connor to be very offensive (“Health care summit smacked of theater,” Feb. 28).

He wrote, “the president announced, in effect, that he would go ahead and try to shove his health care plan down the throats of the American public. His effort will fail.”

What arrogance! (The editor’s, not the president’s.) By what authority does Connor make these extreme statements?

Much of the American public is desperately hoping the president will succeed in leading the country and Congress to pass the health reform bill he has proposed.

It is the insurance companies’ plans that have been shoved down the throats of the American public. A president is supposed to lead – that is not the same as “shoving down the throat.”  As for “theater,” a leader needs to present himself to Congress and the public if he expects to be heard; does that make it theater? What if he had not invited the Republicans to the meeting?

Then, for Connor to declare, “His effort will fail” is beyond presumptuous. We have a long way to go, and the majority of Americans want health care reform.

As for “the predicted Democratic debacle at the polls this fall,” it truly has been predicted – over and over – but that does not make it so.

One election in Massachusetts does not create an inevitable trend.