Live From Washington, D.C.

President Obama's Bipartisan Meeting on Health Reform is happening from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the White House today. It's being covered live on all the cable-news networks, and also streaming live on the White House's Web site. Which is amazing, for all the usual reasons -- giving ordinary people a prolonged look at government in action -- but it also lends the event an element of performance that seems to position it somewhere between Important National Conversation and Political Kabuki Theater.

Or is that unkind? How do you manage particularly sensitive discussions at your meetings? Is it better to be as inclusive as possible and thereby involve as much of your community as you can, or to limit access and thereby create a more intimate, genuine conversation?

P.S. Yes, this is my second post in a row that links to the White House. What can I say? I live inside the Beltway, and sometimes that narrows your perspective.