Tuesday, June 8, 2010

For the 178th time, we're not buying what you're selling.

Yesterday, Jonathan Riskind of the Columbus Dispatch highlighted yet another effort by the Obama Administration to sell Obamacare to the voting public.
President Obama is selling -- hard -- the health-care reform bill that passed in Congress along party-line votes, and that effort will include some sites in Ohio Tuesday.

Obama will be beamed around the country for a satellite tele-town hall meeting aimed at persuading seniors to embrace the new law. Proponents say it will boost seniors' access to primary care and preventive care services, while critics say cuts to private Medicare managed care plans will do more harm than good.
With the most recent numbers from Rasmussen showing 59% of Ohioans support repeal of Obamacare, and so many Democratic candidates invested in the law, you can't blame the President for making a PR push to turn public opinion around, right?

Well, you can if the President and his allies can't seem to understand the problem isn't the pitch, it's the policy.

And how do we know that? How about taking a look at how many times Democrats have organized major public relations campaigns to sell Obamacare? Let's take a look...

June 7, 2010: “Tomorrow, Democrats and the White House will hold more than 100 simultaneous events nationwide as President Obama plunges back into health reform, selling the historic plan all over again…” (Politico Playbook) “White House Mounts PR Blitz for Health Care Reform” (AOL News)

May 11, 2010: “White House health-care campaign begins. The Obama administration's campaign to sell the new health-care law to a skeptical public is beginning to take shape…” (The Washington Post )

April 22, 2010: “Stephanie Cutter, the Democratic communications strategist who spearheaded the White House effort last year to win Senate confirmation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, is returning to the Obama administration to help sell the newly passed health care bill.” (The New York Times)

March 22, 2010: “President Obama is set to begin an immediate public relations blitz aimed at turning around Americans' opinion of the health-care bill.” (The Washington Post)

March 13, 2010: “President Barack Obama’s pollster said the healthcare bill will win over public support once it becomes law despite polls showing Americans against the plan.” (The Hill)

February 15, 2010: “White House officials are retooling the administration’s communications strategy to produce faster responses to political adversaries… Obama has publicly expressed frustration recently that his broader message, especially on health-care reform and the economy, has not been received.” (The Washington Post)

December 22, 2009: “With a health care overhaul inching closer to reality, Democrats have begun devising and testing arguments to persuade a skeptical public that passage of the bill justifies keeping President Barack Obama's party in power in the 2010 elections.” (Chicago Tribune)

September 21, 2009: “The president’s Sunday blitz -- which skipped Fox News Channel -- marked yet another effort to explain to a divided public why he is trying to remake the healthcare system.” (Los Angeles Times)

September 7, 2009:Obama prepares to try to reclaim lost ground in health debate — again. … Obama’s heavily anticipated address to a joint session of Congress comes just six weeks after the White House tried to reclaim the healthcare debate in a nationally televised primetime press conference.” (The Hill)

September 2, 2009: “Eager to turn the page after a politically damaging month, President Barack Obama will launch a new push next week to overhaul health care, highlighted by an evening address next Wednesday to a joint session of Congress.” (McClatchy Newspapers)

August 19, 2009:White House Rethinks How It Sells Health Overhaul. More Emotional Appeal May Surface as Obamas Backers Criticize Him for Focusing on Regulatory Details Instead of Lofty Themes.” (The Wall Street Journal)

July 22, 2009: Obama Moves to Reclaim the Debate on Health Care. …Mr. Obama used the news conference to take his message over the heads of lawmakers and straight to the public.” (The New York Times)

July 19, 2009: “The tightly programmed White House also is champing at the bit, kicking off what officials say will be a relentless three-week push on health care, starting with the hastily scheduled Friday address.” (Politico)

May 13, 2009: Democrats to Develop Plan to Sell Health Care. … Senate Democrats met for more than an hour at the Capitol with David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, and Jim Messina, a deputy White House chief of staff. ‘Axelrod came to reassure us that they do have a strategy,’ Mr. Bayh said.” (The New York Times)

Um.

Whoa.

And yet poll after poll shows a public unwilling to accept what Congress and the President forced down their throats.

How many times does the Administration need smacked over the head to understand that they can't fix with words what's already broken in reality?

Democrats can gnash their teeth all they want. They can be upset that Americans as a whole, and Ohioans especially, aren't buying what they're selling. But they can't change the reality.

Obamacare is a dead law walking.

1 comment:

  1. It's no longer called Obama care, it's now Obama don't care.
    Firefighter

    ReplyDelete

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