Bill Maher tonight looked at the relationship between President Obama and the Republican party, and how it might have taken just a simple dinner to get both sides on the same page. Maher found the talks encouraging, but he was very disturbed about the fact that according to some reports, Obama did not so much have a dialogue with them but rather explained to them that he has actually proposed spending cuts, which was apparently a shocker. Maher also took time to hit Bill O’Reilly over the same point regarding his fiery shouting match with Alan Colmes.

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Forbes‘ Avik Roy assured Maher that all presidents have had these kind of meetings. Maher could not believe that other presidents have had to hold dinners just to tell “basic information to the other party.” Maher admitted he was surprised that the conservative “bubble” is just that impenetrable.

Arianna Huffington added that everything Obama proposed was on the White House website, and said that Republicans just have such knee-jerk opposition to everything Obama does, he might as well publicize all of his ideas under a pseudonym. After a tangent by Maher on why vegetarianism is less popular in the United States than gay marriage, Michael Steele credited Obama for having the dinner, because it helped “reposition the conversation” and now the Republicans who Obama invited can go back to the rest of their party and work on collecting the votes for a compromise plan.

Maher then briefly addressed O’Reilly’s rant, with Huffington observing that he is just living in the same bubble as people who believed Mitt Romney would win the 2012 election.

Watch the video below, courtesy of HBO:

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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