My thoughts on President Obama’s visit to the House Republican retreat in Baltimore for the POLITICO Arena.

I commend President Obama for following President Bush’s example by visiting the House retreat of the opposition party. This type of interaction is productive to our democracy, as it tends to lower the temperature of the overheated Beltway rhetoric.

Today’s discussion was not only good for the prospects of real progress in Washington, it was likely good for President Obama. He was able to respond to questions from House Republicans at length, without interruption. He was given ample time to explain his views and skillfully talked about areas where he felt GOP ideas had been adopted (even if those ideas were rejected by Democratic leaders in Congress).

It was good for Republicans to invite him, but next time the GOP event planners should insist that a “cuts camera” be utilized for television coverage. This would allow people watching at home to see the faces of the members posing questions, instead of what happened today – where questions, which were pointed at times, were lobbed from a dark room by unseen questioners. Visuals matter and create an impression for viewers. Today’s visuals conveyed that President Obama was standing firm in the bright lights while Republicans were in the dark (hiding).

I’ve previously said here on The Arena that President Obama should follow President Bush’s lead in reaching out if he truly wants to change the tone in Washington. Today, he took a step in that direction. Both he and House Republicans should be applauded for what took place.