I’ve suggested here previously, and plan to do so further in another post I am working on, that one key problem which the Democrats must address is not how to use parliamentary procedure to ram through health care reform but how to restore the support of the voters. Obama also showed he realized this problem on his recent interview with ABC News when he said, “If there’s one thing that I regret this year, is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us, that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are.”
Unfortunately winning the support of the voters in an election year and then governing is not enough. The memories of far too many voters are too short, and there are lots of people such as the tea baggers who are ignorant of the real details of policy and are easily be mislead by conservative demagoguery. While some have derided campaigning based upon “hope and change,” it is unfortunately necessary to continue to appeal to the masses on such a level while also working on the nuts and bolts of governing.
Some Democrats were thrown into a state of panic after the Massachusetts loss. Obama remained cool but I am confident he is working at trying to fix what went wrong. One sign that Obama is now considering the politics of passing legislation along with the wonky attention to policy matters is that he is bringing in campaign manager David Plouffe as an outside adviser. Plouffe has an op-ed running in tomorrow’s Washington Post which argues that Democrats do not have to lose in November “if Democrats do what the American people sent them to Washington to do.” This includes creating jobs, making sure that Americans understand how Obama’s policies led to economic recovery, avoid bed-wetting by fearing what will happen, and pass health care reform:
Pass a meaningful health insurance reform package without delay. Americans’ health and our nation’s long-term fiscal health depend on it. I know that the short-term politics are bad. It’s a good plan that’s become a demonized caricature. But politically speaking, if we do not pass it, the GOP will continue attacking the plan as if we did anyway, and voters will have no ability to measure its upside. If we do pass it, dozens of protections and benefits take effect this year. Parents won’t have to worry their children will be denied coverage just because they have a preexisting condition. Workers won’t have to worry that their coverage will be dropped because they get sick. Seniors will feel relief from prescription costs. Only if the plan becomes law will the American people see that all the scary things Sarah Palin and others have predicted — such as the so-called death panels — were baseless. We own the bill and the health-care votes. We need to get some of the upside. (P.S.: Health care is a jobs creator.)
