The 2014 fine line
by digby
Greg Sargent reports that the White House is urging congressional Democrats not to plan their campaigns around how far they can distance themselves from Obamacare, which seems smart to me. They can’t run from it and so they need to find ways to explain to voters why they should give it a chance to work. Saying they voted for this or that Republican initiative won’t help them.
However, Greg also says that the White House is urging them to run on the economy, because it will work for them as it did in 2012:
The argument is that Dems must not let Beltway political spin wars pull them off of political turf that remains favorable to them:
Our data continues to show, unequivocally, that the nation’s economic health remains voters’ overriding priority. Even amid a cascade of news cycles focused on the Affordable Care Act, Syria, the government shutdown and the NSA, voters’ primary focus has never shifted from their economic well-being…We need to align Democrats with a future-oriented agenda that focuses on the issues that matter to families across the country — strengthening the economy, creating jobs, investing in education, promoting a living wage — and not getting caught up in inside-the-Beltway political dramas that have little bearing on their immediate well-being.
Benenson also insists his polling shows Democrats have the upper hand, if the argument over the economy is framed in this way:
In a forced choice question, just 39 percent of voters and 23 percent of independents agree: The way to get our country back on track is to get government out of the way and unleash the power of businesses and markets to create jobs by lowering taxes and eliminating needless regulations.
While 59 percent overall and 65 percent of independents agree with the alternate choice: The way to get our country back on track is to get the public and private sector working together to invest in manufacturing, technology, small businesses and education to create jobs our country needs and train our children to succeed in the new economy.
I think they can try to frame it that way and perhaps it will work. But that this memo had to be written also points out just how much harder a sell that’s going to be, at least for a while, since these same politicians will also be forced to explain the reasons for the rocky healthcare roll out. I’m afraid that if people were skeptical about government efficiency before, it’s going to take a while to put their minds at rest that the feds can execute big projects again. Obviously, if the health care bill is working well and people are happier with it by next year’s election this won’t be as much of a problem. But I think it’s quite likely it’s going to take a bit longer than that for people to lose the impression that this has been a big embarrassment. I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect that those who have to run in 2014 are going to be walking a very fine line on all this.
The good news (and bad news)is, as usual, that the right wing is batshit crazy and likely to overplay their hand. They’ve been very helpful that way. So there’s that.
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