Obama Reframes Health Care Message Again; American's Unconvinced

Sam Adams MMIV*: Once again reeling from yet another poll showing public disapproval of President Obama’s handling of health care, The New York Times reports, “President Obama sought Wednesday to reframe the health care debate as ‘a core ethical and moral obligation,’ imploring a coalition of religious leaders to help promote the plan to lower costs and expand insurance coverage for all Americans.” But hasn’t the White House been reframing and retooling its health care message quite a bit recently?

Indeed it has. In just the last month, there have been at least six different reports about President Obama trying to reframe or retool the health care debate. Only yesterday, The Washington Post noted that “the main message on health care shifted from cost containment to attacking insurance companies.” On August 11^th,the AP reported, “President Barack Obama is switching his message on his overhaul of the nation's health care system, readying a fresh pitch designed for those who already have insurance.” The same day, another AP story said, “Retooling his message amid sliding support, Obama poked at critics who he said were trying to ‘scare the heck out of folks.’” Previously, The Huffington Post noted, “The administration also sought to reframe the debate on eight core principles for ‘health insurance consumer protections,’ which aides said resonated much better than the ‘health care reform’ push it has made to this point.” At the end of July, the AP wrote, “Barack Obama introduced a retooled message asserting his plan would protect Americans and limit insurers’ power.” And a week before that, a Politico story on Obama’s last primetime press conference noted “He sought to reframe his plans as a matter of improving the lives of most Americans . . . .”

So over the last four weeks, Obama has retooled his message or attempted to reframe the debate from improving the lives of Americans and averting a crisis, to attacking insurance companies, to talking about “health insurance consumer protections,” to attacking his critics, to reassuring Americans with coverage, to dropping talk of containing costs, to now declaring his health reform plans “a core ethical and moral obligation.”

And yet none of this seems to have had much of an impact on a skeptical public. Yesterday’s NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 47% disapprove of Obama’s handling of health care, with only 41% approving, little change from a 46%-41% disapproval in July. Also unchanged was the number of Americans who think Obama’s health care plan is a “bad idea,” 42%, compared to the 36% who see it as a “good idea.” Perhaps this says something about the policy Obama is trying to sell, as opposed to the language with which he’s attempting to sell it.
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*Bill Smith, Editor: Who is Sam Adams MMIV? It's a pen name for an un-named beltway source. While receiving information from many sources, this Sam's words have often found there way into much of my writings and I decided that sometimes Sam's words should stand on their own. Thank you to all the Sam Adams patriots, by whatever name they use, for speaking up for America.

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