September 24, 2010

Please send me your comments!

By Dave Andrusko

Let's start with two telling quotes.

"[Kaiser Health News's Jenny Gold] Should Democratic candidates downplay health care or [should they] really be talking about this?
"[Democratic Pollster Peter Hart] I would opt for avoiding the subject rather than wading into the subject. I think the biggest difficulty here is not the question of what's in the bill, it's the perception of what people think this bill would do."
     -- From "Democratic Pollster: White House Needs To Go 'Back To Basics' To Sell Health Law," which appeared online yesterday.

"As a very recent former president -- now preferred in bellwether Ohio over the current one by 50 percent to 42 percent -- once said: Bring 'em on."
     --  Columnist Charles Krauthammer, referring to a respond reported in the September 1st Public Policy Polling. When asked who "they rather have as President," 50% chose George W. Bush to 42% for Barack Obama.

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Imagine the Hobbesian choice faced by those with the unenviable task of defending ObamaCare. Since they are not stupid they know that the public is in full-fledged revolt against this gargantuan abortion-promoting, rationing-ensuring mess, but they can't admit the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" is weighing down Democratic candidates like a 500-pound anchor. Answer? Deflect/misdirect/and blame it on anything but the obvious fact that the measure is unacceptable to the public.

Which brings us to the interview Democratic pollster Peter Hart gave to Kaiser Health News (which loves ObamaCare). Among the rationalizations Hart offered Jenny Gold to explain the public's widespread opposition were."I think overall the public doesn't know, doesn't understand it enough and has fear in terms of 'what it means for me'"; "the White House has not really had a single strategy or good strategy"; it's like the Panama Canal treaty [!], which was underappreciated at the time and exploited by those rascally Republicans ; and (when all else fails) "change is scary."

For all these reasons, and more, the law is too complex for us immature, silly gooses to understand. This frees Hart to counsel Democrats to avoid the topic. (Worth noting is his answer to the first question--essentially, when will ObamaCare become more popular. Hart responds that it's not "a six-month process.

I think this is more a two-year, four-year, six-year process.")

Hart is trying to make lemonade out of lemons, which is, after all, what he's paid to do. But to borrow from Krauthammer addressing a different phase of the 2010 elections, "this is so at variance with reality that it's hard to believe even liberals believe it."

Please send your comments on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha.

Part Three
Part One