New Ad Cheers On Harry Reid In Fight For Public Option
A new twist to the left’s efforts to get Harry Reid to man up on the public option.
Americans United for Change, the labor-backed group allied with the White House, is launching a new radio ad in Nevada that — rather than overtly pressure Reid — cheers him on in his efforts to get the public option done. The none-too-subtle message: Getting health care reform through the Senate will make Reid a hero — if it includes a public option.
The ad casts the fight for reform as a “marathon” and correctly labels the public option as the real way to prevail over the insurance industry, and continues:
Now that the marathon is beginning its last lap … the insurance companies are desperate to prevent us from getting to the finish line.
Luckily the guy whose has been handed the baton to run that last lap –- is Nevada’s Senator Harry Reid.
Luckily … because Harry Reid isn’t afraid to fight the insurance companies. He’s already gone after their anti-trust exemption … and he’ll keep fighting until we get health care for all Americans –- including a public option –- this year.
Cheer him on. Call Senator Reid at 702-388-5020 — tell him to keep fighting until we win.
The spot reflects a divide in the pro-reform camp over how strongly to pressure Dem lawmakers into backing the public action. Scrappier groups such as MoveOn and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee are running ads pressing Democrats hard, while Americans United for Change and Health Care for America Now have generally heeded the White House’s directive that it not open fire on fellow Dems.
In the new spot, AUC is pressuring Reid, but with a light touch, so it’s unlikely to irk the White House. Full script here.
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Hah. I just suggested a campaign like this on DK a few days ago…and I got SLAMMED for it.
Good Cop/Bad Cop!
I still think a great motivator would be if Dems in NV and neighboring states put together a volunteer list who pledge a certain number of phonebank calls or canvass days, but ONLY if Reid includes the PO. Get 50 volunteers on that list and you’re looking at a pledge of several thousand phone calls and knocked doors.
Carrots and sticks. I still call this pressure, especially after a statement like “We’re leaning towards talking about a public option.” The main idea is to increase the visibility of Harry Reid as one of THE key players in this, and success (as well as failure) falling on his shoulders just as much as Obama.
By the by, despite all the hand wringing and “AH HA!”s from the GOP on the Iranians making noises before the negotiations, it appears that Obama will get a deal on exporting Iranian fuel for enrichment. This is potentially huge as it neuters the possibility for Iran to create a nuclear bomb by turning around the time between the desire to make one and enriching the fuel for one. If this goes through, he will have done more to keep Iran (one of Bush’s “axis of evil”) from getting a bomb than Bush did with 8 years and two wars.
BBQ, I like that idea. There are plenty of troops who could pledge time for Harry in California, were he to come through for his team.
Gerson today…
“The passage of a massive health entitlement would change the relationship of Americans to their government.
On the evidence of nations such as England, a national health system places a conservative party at a permanent ideological disadvantage. Every proposal for tax reductions is attacked as undermining the eternally hungry public health system. Every failure of that system becomes an excuse for greater spending and government involvement. The tide of government grows, and the ebb weakens, until no one can fight the flood.”
Every sentence here excepting the first one is false. Since the Canadian medicare system was put in place, conservative governments have won elections (federally and provincially) with no less frequency then before. The present government is conservative. The other sentences, with their careless absolutes, are as silly and false.
Gerson is voicing the same ideological notions here that Kristol voiced in his famous ‘93 memo – government has no proper role in medical delivery/insurance as we see it being done in Israel, Britain, Canada, France, Finland, Switzerland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Australia, Germany, etc etc. All such moves take us down the road to socialist hell (which ought to be obvious considering how horrid all those other countries are).
I have no patience left for people like Gerson and Kristol. What they say and write now is neither thoughtful nor honest. Their ideological blind certainties (not to mention their insistence, explicit or implicit, on maintaining a particular sort of privileged elite always at the helm of the nation) have their clearest modern analogues in that old target of their fears and wrath.
@Bernie
Agreed…but you also ignored their utter and complete lack of credibility on virtually every aspect of how to run a Government.
Conservatism failed, and it failed badly. If I were to use internet slang, I’d call it an ‘epic fail’…but there isn’t text large enough to capslock the “epic” in to properly convey the level of fail Conservatism reached over the past 8 years.
Whatever Kristol, Rove, Gerson, Cheney, and the rest of the know nothing coward chickhawk elitist blowhards say…do the opposite. We’ll all be better off.
Bernie…Guns or Butter? The right always chooses guns the left likes butter. The amazing thing to me is that when you consider people like Gerson and especially Kristol are virtually paranoid delusionals when it comes to our defense…why would anybody listen. I guess is simply reveals how many paranoid delusional folks are walking around in our society….heck some of them even post on this blog.:-)
@BBQ – I’d temper that statement through stipulating that the acute failures you point to arose out of a modern and extremist version of “conservatism”. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23033
@rukidding – it’s an odd dichotomy, isn’t it? I confess I am at a loss to understand how it arises and what to do about it. John Rawls wrote an essay late in life where he said that his motive in writing his “Theory of Justice” was to build a bridge between the two worlds.
An extremist version of “conservatism” we could debate. Add to that the paranoid and delusional belief that we are being led down the path to Marxism by a mind-controlling and enigmatic leader and the debate becomes ridiculous.
Perhaps there will be someone in the Senate or the House, besides Snowe on HCR and Graham on Climate Change, who will join their fellow legislators to get something done. I’m watching those who are opposing Financial regulations right now.
Greg
I’m sure both the WH and Reid will appreciate the tone of this ad over the more challenging one yesterday. It’s difficult for me to picture Reid as the sort of “Champion” of the public option, but maybe he’s like to assume that role.
re health care reform changing people’s relationship with government, worth noting that that’s exactly why Bill Kristol told the GOP they need to kill refomr at all costs — both times
“if this goes through, he will have done more to keep Iran (one of Bush’s “axis of evil”) from getting a bomb than Bush did with 8 years and two wars.”
More in 9 months than Bush did in 8 years and with two wars.
I really don’t get why ANYBODY thinks the Republican Way of doing things holds any credibility at this point. Even the most staunch Republican has to be happy that we are finally doing something about Iran’s nuke program. If not, well, again, there’s no down side.
Hey, can someone start a signature campaign of everyone that will donate $10+ dollars to the DNC if a public option is passed?
Money talks right?
Has Bill Kristol EVER been correct in any of his prophecies? I don’t have enough space here to list the number of times he was wrong. Is he simply a case of being born with the correct parents. I mean with all due respect to the recently departed was Irving such a prescient commentator that we give his ignorant son ANY attention whatsoever?
Ethan-
If the enrichment deal falls thru, in the current state of the GOP, they would have to cheer that failure, wouldn’t they? I like the way you think…
Greg said: “re health care reform changing people’s relationship with government, worth noting that that’s exactly why Bill Kristol told the GOP they need to kill reform at all costs — both times”
Yes. But this time Kristol is going to fail. The fight to remove Obama from power will move to other venues/issues but won’t be less vicious (Hersch is talking about the Pentagon’s desire to see Obama fail). We can hope the movement will continue to rip itself apart but its institutional structures and connections will remain formidable and influential for a while.
“Has Bill Kristol EVER been correct in any of his prophecies?”
He was right that The Base would love Palin.
I think that’s it.
“”"in the current state of the GOP, they would have to cheer that failure, wouldn’t they?”"”
You got that right. That won’t stop them, though, as we’ve seen they’re way way off the range.
And Chuck, is it irony that on the same day we have this Iran news we get news that Poland is behind the revised Missile Shield. Another major step forward in foreign policy that has no downside (other than to bloated military contractors), that the GOP shamelessly whined made us weaker.
Two awesome, positive foreign policy stories today for sure.
NY Times: “If Iran actually sends the majority of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Russia in a single shipment it would have too little fuel on hand to build a nuclear weapon for roughly a year, according to the agency’s experts. If the 2,600 pounds of fuel leave Iran in batches, the experts warn, Iran would have the ability to replace it almost as quickly as it leaves the country.
“Also of concern is the possibility that Iran might have more nuclear fuel than it is letting on. The estimate that Iran has about 3,500 pounds of low-enriched uranium “assumes that Iran has accurately declared how much fuel it possesses, and does not have a secret supply,” as one senior European diplomat put it on the sidelines of negotiations here.
…
“Ultimately, Mr. Obama would have to get Iran to agree to give up the enrichment process as well. Otherwise, the fuel taken out of circulation in the draft agreement would soon be replaced. During the campaign, Mr. Obama and his aides said that Iran could not be trusted to enrich uranium. But he has not made the cessation of enrichment a prerequisite to talks, and the work is still under way, in violation of three United Nations Security Council resolutions.
…
“Calculations by the International Atomic Energy Agency and outside researchers concluded that it would probably take Iran about a year to replace the 2,600 pounds of fuel with new production, which it is carrying out in violation of three United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
They could do the same thing, even if they were bombed, like Madman Bolton wants done.
How ironic would it be if a nation with more than 100 nukes,(Israel) or a nation with thousands of nukes(USA) bombed another country to stop them from getting any nukes.
Reminds me of that Seinfeld Character. USA or Israel in the role of The Nuke Nazi. Lots of nukes for us; No Nukes for you.
So, just to be clear, it’s okay with you if Iran develops a nuclear weapon? How about North Korea?