Well, it’s been five months since President Obama signed his comprehensive health care reform legislation into law, and in that time something remarkable has happened. The number of people who oppose the law has actually grown, not diminished as Democrats predicted.
The flood of negative polling that the Democrats ignored for months turned into a tsunami at the ballot box in Missouri that they couldn’t ignore. Ben Smith at Politico broke the news that the Democrats officially abandoned their message that ObamaCare would cut costs and reduce the deficit and are implementing a new and improved strategy designed to sway public opinion away from repealing the law to defending it. They’re going to appeal to people’s emotions through the use of personal sob stories. Clearly, the Democrats’ strategists are thinking outside the box on this one.
Ben includes in his article what used to be a secret presentation created by Families USA and given to Democrats to teach them how to implement their new strategy. The presentation makes it clear that the American people have never believed the sales pitch that the health care legislation will actually help them or the government save money. It also lays out in no uncertain terms that the American people are downright depressed about where the country is going. That’s a damning indictment of the Democrats’ leadership, or lack thereof:
With the Democrats totally new strategy of using personal sob stories to save ObamaCare, maybe we’ll get lucky and Louise Slaughter will get a lot of air time:
For months Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Anthony Weiner, Barack Obama and others hyped how ObamaCare was going to do the miraculous and cut costs, reduce the deficit, and expand coverage, all while adding tens of millions of people to the health care system. Now, Democrats are being told to keep their sales pitches and promises more on the modest side:
So, let’s take a look at what this new strategy looks like:
To the non-college educated women, continue to sell the thoroughly debunked promise that if they like their current health care plan, they can keep it:
Even though $500 billion in Medicare cuts are going to help pay for health care reform, Medicare won’t be cut. Really:
And whatever the $500 billion in Medicare cuts won’t cover, the rich will pick up:
So relax. Don’t worry, be happy! The Democrats will improve the law.
Finally, Democrats, whatever you do, DON’T MENTION COST!
In a nutshell, the Democrats’ new strategy is making many of the same appeals they’ve been making all along that the American people never believed, but are dressed up in a pretty black dress and pearls.
Sure, this new strategy sounds like a real winner…for Republicans.
