It’s kind of stunning how much effort the Republicans are putting into making arguments in favor of repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Even the Heritage Foundation, which practically designed the health care reforms back in the early 1990’s, is getting into the act. This is such a political loser that I am ecstatic about the misallocation of time and effort. As Rick Santorum frequently pointed out, Mitt Romney is probably the worst person in the entire country to pitch the repeal of ObamaCare. Plus, this hostility to the Act is going to help drive the gender gap because women love having their kids on their health insurance until they are twenty-six and they love having all their contraceptive needs treated as preventative care that has no co-pays. Women love that they won’t be charged more for insurance just because they reproduce. And women love that they will no longer be treated as having a pre-existing condition because they’ve had a caesarian section or been the victim of domestic abuse.
So, the Republicans can stuff it. We’re going to win this election and there is no going back.
The republicans have almost entirely lost the ability to appeal to anyone but the base. They have lost or willfully thrown away the institutional knowledge to run a national campaign with centrist appeal. Their last attempt was Bush in 2000 and that still lost. Hence we are now at a point where it’s July and their candidate is in hiding, editorialists on their side are openly acknowledging that the cupboard is bare, and the majority leader is wishfully pretending that only 5% of the voters will even bother to have an opinion about Mr. Offshore Accounts.
I just ponied up $3.00 and got a free “I Love Obamacare” sticker. I was inspired by my drive home from dropping the kid off at day camp. I was stuck behind a guy in Hyundai with twin bumper stickers: “Atlas is Shrugging” (coupled with the Obama logo), and “Who is John Galt”. He was pulling into the VA hospital.
I realized then and there I needed pro-Obama stickers, if only to piss off conservatives.
I’ve been excited that Obama has returned to a rhetorical style that he hasn’t used since 2008…it’s great to see.
The only wildcard remains the economy, and Booman I’m sure you’re following it, but the fact is that much of the developed world is already in recession, with many European nations sinking fast. One of the more sober and data driven assessments of recession risk indicates that while we are unlikely to be in recession already, it’s possible that we will be entering recession around the time of the election. My hope is that while there’s a fair chance that will happen, it always takes several months for a recession to be officially dated.
What I’ve read so far tends to indicate that voters beliefs about the economy are completed by about 2 months prior to the election.
This makes sense to me, as economies usually don’t implode over a 1 week period … note the use of the term “usually”.
It’s July. Right, wrong or otherwise the mindset on the economy will be set by the middle of Sept.
Hang in there.
Of course that means we have to get through August, the traditional horrible month for Dems.
Listening to Rick Perry’s announcement yesterday that TX would forego participation in HCA and say with a straight face that it was all about ‘freedom’ where no one shouted back, ‘yeah, freedom to die without health coverage’ didn’t give me hope that R’s have any intention of giving up stupid.
I guess they never heard that nobody likes a sore loser. Boehner is so absurdly proud of this relentlessly repeated voting. It will take a huge loss to teach them a lesson on how to act like adults.
I can’t wait to see Pelosi back in charge of the House.
I like your typo: a caesarian section is a “pre-exiting” condition.
Heh.
Fixed.
Mitt Romney is probably the worst person in the entire country to pitch the repeal of ObamaCare
I can’t believe they nominated Romney, just eight years after they so effectively blunted John Kerry’s attacks on the Iraq War by noting “But you voted for it.”
I’m not as optimistic about the underlying politics of the Act itself, though. Yes, people support the individual policies in it, but that hasn’t worked to destroy attacks on “Obamacare” so far. Why would that change now, all of a sudden?
A good point, Joe. Neither the White House, the DNC, nor the media have done any kind of job explaining what is and is not in the ACA. other than the lifted restrictions. What exactly are the Exchanges? I’ve read three things here and at Dkos:
So which is it? Explanation 1 is sort of nice, but irrelevant to anyone with internet access. Explanation 2 is not very helpful to someone barraged daily with pitches to by insurance. Explanation 3 is very scary to most people who know group plans are a lot better than individual plans.
And what is with this “42% income tax increase to pay for Obamacare” that the Tea Party guys pitch at me about three times a week? I have asked for a webpage or magazine article where they read this but only got one link from one guy. The link was to a guy on RedState (or was it a freeper?) balding stating that there will be a 42% tax increase, but I dismissed it considering the source. Why isn’t the Obama Campaign answering this lie? Is it a lie? No wonder the country is split on whether they like the program or not.
The White House and Democrats have been working to explain the ACA for years. The amount of air time they have devoted to this since 2009 has been staggering. The volume and effort of the messaging by Democratic officials isn’t the problem. The problem is, it is a complicated matter, and it is much easier for its opponents to scrawl something ugly and catchy and have people understand that, than for its supporters to explain the truth.
Why isn’t the Obama Campaign answering this lie? Is it a lie?
Of course it’s a lie. The Obama campaign isn’t answering it because chasing around every lie your opponent puts out, instead of pushing your own message, would be a really stupid waste of time and resources.
Health Care Exchanges
But there is no public option.
Are you under the impression that the proposed “public option” is the only public health care coverage in the United States?
The exchanges also provide information about Medicaid, Medicare, SCHIP, and the other public programs that people looking for health insurance might qualify for.
Sorry, that reads a lot more harshly than I meant it.
S’okay. No offense taken.
Romney in front of NAACP this morning touting his intent to repeal of ObamaCare…gets boo’d.
This is not a smart politician. Surely he could find another topic to bring to that particular audience to give his candidacy creds?
Oh no, wait, Romney on down the Rep lineup have chosen NOT to have anything to court a NAACP crowd with.
Ha! Ha! To quote Bugs Bunny, “What a Maroon!”
Maybe he should have touted Voter ID instead. I know! He should have told them that Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim Socialist.
That would have them cheering for sure.
Next he will address a Restaurant group and tell them how he plans to repeal the Pure Food and Drug laws.
Why did he even bother to go there? Didn’t McCain skip it?
I’m beginning to wonder if he just up and used a well worn stump speech knowing full well that he would be boo’d but thinking he could use that reaction to show his base how he stood up to the NAACP with their values in tact. Man makes my brain hurt.
Let them whine about repeal and replace. The public is ready to move on and even more than a quarter of Republicans follow this sentiment according to polls.
Remember Alan Grayson’s description of the Republican plan for health care: “Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.” – Now Mitch McConnell came out last week and confirmed as much – 30 Million Uninsured Americans Are Not An Issue According to Mitch McConnell.
Health Care is a winning issue for the Democrats – for several election cycles to come.
Oh – and time to move the Overton Window to the left; start pushing single payer, universal health care. Better care, lower costs!
I don’t think it’s time; we’re still in the “consolidate our gains” phase, not in the “launch the next attack” phase.
We still have to hold off the attacks against the ACA. At this point, with the repealers’ attacks still coming hot and heavy, the effect of attacking from the left would merely be to weaken the political strength of the broadly pro-health care reform side. “Even the liberals say Obamacare should be repealed!” would be the message that would come out of a single-payer push right now.
We still haven’t finished this thing. We have to do that before we go onto the next thing.
I tend to disagree; the Republicans are stumbling, and badly, on this issue. Kick them as they fall, don’t let them get back up.
The Democrats should definitely go after the Republicans on health care.
The question is, on what ground? Keeping in mind, the other side gets a say in that.
There is still a big fight about whether to repeal Obamacare. Going after the Republicans on health care in 2012 means winning that fight, decisively.