This is getting to be a regular thing. The Wall Street Journal reports that President Barack Obama and David Axelrod, his chief political strategist, have opted to shift gears in an effort to put the August recess behind them and reach out to two moderate GOP senators in an effort to salvage something positive from the health care debate.
According to the Journal’s Jonathan Weisman and Janet Adamy, “Democrats hope to persuade the public that Republicans are to blame for the stalemate and shift opinion in favor of an overhaul. They want to build enough momentum to win support from a small number of moderate Republicans, in particular the two senators from Maine.” The latter are Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. This dynamic duo previously provided critically important support in Obama’s successful effort in February to steamroller Congress into passing the failed $787 billion economic stimulus package.
But this latest strategy shift — which reportedly will include a major national policy address by Obama aimed at Congress — isn’t likely to be any more successful than the previous half-dozen or so reported shifts since the health care reform debate heated up this summer. On Aug. 19, for example, the New York Times said Obama was seeking “to reframe the debate” as a “core ethical and moral obligation.” Only the day before that, The Washington Post had reported that “the main message on health care shifted from cost containment to attacking insurance companies.”
On Aug. 11, AP reported that Obama was “retooling his message amid sliding support,” while jabbing back “at critics who he said were trying to ‘scare the heck out of folks.’ ” On Aug. 10, the Huffington Post described Obama’s new effort to “reframe the debate on eight core principles for ‘health insurance consumer protections,’ which aides said resonated much better than the ‘health care reform’ push it has made to this point.” A couple of weeks before that, AP said, “Barack Obama introduced a retooled message asserting his plan would protect Americans and limit insurers’ power.” Finally, the week of that AP report, Politico detected yet another Obama reframing, this time seeking to portray his plans “as a matter of improving the lives of most Americans. … ”
Instead of reframing his words, Obama should stop trying to put the blame on others for the public shellacking his health care proposal has endured, and admit that the proposal itself is the problem. Clear majorities oppose the government-run “public option” the White House reportedly has abandoned. But the public also rejects cuts in Medicare and creation of government-run committees to rank treatment options as a cost-cutting strategy. The public’s message to the White House is clear: Go back to square one, Mr. President.
