Supporters of so-called “Obamacare” have spent much of the last two years frustrated as it became apparent that the President was not going to spend much energy responding to critics of the bill, allowing them to run wild with only minimal response. In discussing it with a friend last night, we came to the conclusion that quite possibly the administration was waiting to see if it would make it through the Supreme Court. Why burn a lot of money and time and energy defending something that might get thrown out anyway?
If our theory was correct, then, we predicted, the Obama camp would soon begin an all-out blitz of publicity efforts in defense of the act and in the face of the critics.
Based on this new video, it looks like our prediction is right and even faster than we imagined: the full counteroffensive has finally begun. And right in time for election season too.
Watch for Republicans who were gleefully gloating that “Obamacare is not popular” to become stymied and/or furious, because when you say “Obamacare” most people are negative on it: why wouldn’t they be after years of non-stop negative assault, and only a weak response? Why wouldn’t people feel negative about it? But the fact is that on the individual components of the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”), most Americans are in support. And all the administration needs to do is start pointing that out forcefully.
I’m thinking at this point we’re going to see a lot more ads like this. Just in time for election season. Yes, Republicans will rip it apart and find flaws in it. But this signals, I think, that the real political battle has just begun in earnest. Everything up until now was mostly sound and fury, signifying little.
(This item cross-posted to Dean’s World.)
Dean Esmay is the author of Methuselah’s Daughter. He has contributed to Dean’s World, Huffington Post, A Voice for Men, Pajamas Media. Neither left nor right wing, neither libertarian nor socialist.