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June 28, 2012 4:40 PM So What’s the Election “About?”

By Ed Kilgore

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In my rare and health-threatening day of having Fox News on in the background, I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard some conservative gabber excitedly say the elections are now “about” ObamaCare. The base is excited, natch. And ObamaCare does indeed touch on conservative obsessions—e.g., the “welfare” that “socialists” want to give to those people—that the subject the election was previously “about,” monthly jobs reports and GDP indicators, doesn’t quite arouse.

But is that a smart strategy? And is Mitt Romney, who has all but lobotomized himself, his staff and surrogates to prevent presentation of anything other than the pure economic referendum message, on board?

On the first question, sure ObamaCare is unpopular. But as we should all understand by now, when you add together the people who support ACA with those who think the federal government should go a lot further to reform the system, it’s a fairly sizable majority. Then there’s the fact that the GOP’s own “thinking” on health care ranges from the unpopular to the unworkable to the disastrous. Is a big national debate over health reform—particularly since Democrats may have actually learned a thing or two about how to market reform, and because popular parts of ACA are now being implemented—a slam dunk for Republicans? Hard to say.

And then there’s Mitt. Those who watched his statement on the Court’s decision today may have notice that he wasn’t on board with the Tax! Tax! Tax! message other GOPers were articulating, and also that he seemed to be going to great lengths to tie ACA to the economy. As Paul Waldman points out today, an ACA debate also brings Romney’s own flip-flop back up in a big way, just when he thought he had that problem in his rear-view window.

But it’s not clear to me that Romney is going to be able to suppress the desire of conservatives to rant about ObamaCare 24/7. You may recall that in 2008 wingnut activists got so frustrated with John McCain’s refusal to talk about Jeremiah Wright and ACORN that they started disrupting his events. I think we can look forward to a lot more of that if Mitt tries to “get back on message” and talk monotonously about economic indicators when his audiences want him to whup up on the godless babykilling socializers who want to take Medicare away from hardworking Americans in order to help those people.

Ed Kilgore is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly. He is managing editor for The Democratic Strategist and a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute. Find him on Twitter: @ed_kilgore.
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Comments

  • SadOldVet on June 28, 2012 4:51 PM:

    And ObamaCare does indeed touch on conservative obsessions—e.g., the “welfare” that “socialists” want to give to those people...

    Ed, why not come out and say it! N!gger, n!gger, n!gger is more accurate than conservative obsessions and those people.

  • delNorte on June 28, 2012 5:06 PM:

    I say: go ahead and make it a campaign issue. That gives Obama and Democrats a clear opportunity to (re)educate the American people what is actually in the bill.

    I was in a thrift store this morning when the ruling came down - the local "Christian" radio station was playing in the background - the first caller was a woman complaining about the government forcing people to buy something they can't afford to pay for.

    "I haven't had health insurance for the last four years," she said. "I haven't been able to afford it." The fact that there will be subsidies for people who can't afford insurance seems to have not gotten through to her, or she would've cheered today's decision.

    Job number one is to educate those who've been lied to and misled by the right...the debates would be a great place for Obama to set the record straight.

  • c u n d gulag on June 28, 2012 5:11 PM:

    Mitt's association with "RomneyCare" means that he can't touch this.
    After a couple of days, he'll have to drop this like a hot-potato - even though he'll miss a chance with 'the base,' who are fired-up about "repeal," and don't give a sh*t about "replace."
    The Congressional R's will want to continue this fight, for their own benefit, trying to continue to incite their base.
    This is a BIG problem for Mitt, and the R Party.

    We've ALL seen the video of Mitt bragging about the mandate in MA.
    He knows that Obama's campaign will add that to their anti-Bain ads between now an Nov.
    Hence, the problem Mitt will have with Congressional R's, running for election and re-election.

    Mitt's left with some slim-pickin's.

    Mitt HAS to hope that gas prices go back up.
    He HAS to hope for Europe to collapse economically.
    He HAS to hope for another 9/11 between now and November.

    In the meantime, he HAS to run on the economy and jobs, and his unique ability to create them:
    In India, Pakistan, Vietnam, The Philippines, etc.

    I'm going to watch the R's with a great deal of interest.
    They're now stuck with a candidate who CAN'T go along with them on ACA, without losing the base.
    And Congressional R's see this as a winner for them.
    Quite a pickle they're in, eh?

  • JR on June 28, 2012 5:15 PM:

    @delNorte, that caller is not alone. One of CNBC's gals was on Morning Joe today to talk about the ACA and small business. In short, she gave the lie to those who say they're hurt by the bill. Truth is that, no thanks to gross lack of/mis-information, though nearly 2 million small business qualify for subsidies to assist with employee coverage, fewer than 175K have applied for it.

    I also hope all those teabaggin' lunatics show up at Romney rallies. If there's one thing we've learned so far, Mitt Romney is no John McCain. Say what you will about McCain, he resisted that wave of nonsense. Romney, though, is a famous control freak who simply doesn't know what to do when thrown off-script. That's when he starts making mistakes. This could be fun!!!

  • MuddyLee on June 28, 2012 5:17 PM:

    Ed, I say tomorrow use John Lee Hooker's "21 Boogie" for the morning video. It's a celebration song and one of his best from the somewhat obscure Highway 51 album recorded around 1950 - it's Hooker at his best - solo - just his guitar, voice, and foot. It's a worthy song to help us celebrate the Supreme Court ruling on ACA. Hey, Mitt - thanks for Romneycare - someday maybe people will give you some credit for helping us get Obamacare passed, upheld, and sustained after Obama's re-election.

  • mcc on June 28, 2012 5:19 PM:

    The election is about hating Obama. Go look at Romney's website sometime-- it's all he's running on. Every single issues section *begins* with a huge banner saying "Obama's failure" followed by an explanation of how it is Obama has failed you on that issue. Following this is a short explanation of what, if anything, Romney would do better.

    If the election is about issues-- what do you think should be done on the economy, health care, immigration?-- Obama is in good shape. If the election is how people personally feel about Obama and the Obama administration, Romney is in good shape. The right hates Obama with an all-consuming focus and the left and center are at best ambivalent about him, and Romney's "but you sure are angry with Obama, aren't you?" message is well positioned to tap into the widespread disappointment among the left and center that Obama, upon inheriting a series of economic and military and ecological and health care disasters, was not able to make everything into puppies and sunshine instantly.

    Put another way, if the election is about health care policy, Obama is better off. If the election is about "Obamacare" Romney is better off.

    Oh, and somewhere there are elections happening for congress, I GUESS, but everyone seems to have forgotten about those.

  • ElegantFowl on June 28, 2012 5:20 PM:

    I received a $200 rebate on my health insurance on Tuesday, because their 2011 overhead+salaries were higher than allowed under ACA MLR provisions. Actually, I live in MA under RomneyCare, so the MLR for my insurance is 88% instead of the federal 80%. People in other states, particularly FL, will be receiving larger rebates.

    Some of them will cash the check and continue cursing Obama, but some will at least try to understand where the money came from.

  • mudwall jackson on June 28, 2012 5:24 PM:

    i don't think romney can win with this however he plays it. obviously, repealing aca plays to the republican fire eaters but not so much with the undecided middle. he can't ignore the issue but the economy is still the better card for romney to play. but tying the two together is just too complicated, too convoluted to work effectively.

    sad,

    don't think of 'them' in racial terms but rather social darwinian. if you don't have health insurance, it's because you don't deserve it regardless if you're nigger, spic, beaner, wetback, or white trash. poverty is color-blind.

  • liam foote on June 28, 2012 6:21 PM:

    Thankd, Ed, for an excellent analysis of what's to come. I fully agree with those who have pointed out out that Sen. McCain was mostly decent and honest during the 2008 campaign. This current batch of TP'ers, including the wingnuts in the GOP-led House, and those who have hijacked a tentative message of Romney competence in favor of racism, bigotry, misogyny and unbridled hate are leading a once noble GOP to the worst defeat since 2964, the last time they had control. Pity.

  • N.Wells on June 28, 2012 7:03 PM:

    "McCain was mostly decent and honest during the 2008 campaign."

    McCain was not particularly decent and honest. He occasionally showed some standards, but more often didn't, and he didn't lie quite as outrageously as Romney is now, but he nonetheless set new lows for campaigning. Republicans have show a steady progression from Bush's level of lying, to McCain's and Palin's and on to Romney's: they have learned that they can lie at will because there's no cost to it, so they just don't seem to bother with the truth any more.
    http://www.alternet.org/election08/98764/mccain_and_palin_are_trying_to_take_political_lying_to_the_next_dimension/
    http://progressivesonline.com/election/mccain-lies.htm

  • exlibra on June 28, 2012 7:33 PM:

    [...] I’ve heard some conservative gabber excitedly[...] -- Ed Kilgore

    Ed, you have been watching too much Fox today and it *is* bad for your health. "Gabber" is a Palinism of the "refudiate" sort. You pushed together "gab" and "jabber" to get it. Calm down, man :)

  • Rugosa on June 29, 2012 9:26 AM:

    exlibra - Ed is using "gabber" as a noun, i.e., one who gabs, hence a perfectly cromulent word.