Obamacare Ad Wars

While supporters of the health-care bill focus on politics, opponents focus on policy.
by Libby Sternberg
08/20/2009 12:00:00 AM

President Obama made an unfortunate stumble in his August 11 town hall meeting on health care reform. 'FedEx and UPS are doing just fine,' he said, attempting to allay fears that a public option would drive private insurers out of the market. 'It's the Post Office that's always having problems.'

That's precisely what Americans fear, though--that any government-run program would simply eat up tax dollars while they stood in long lines for service. Inadvertently, the president captured Americans' views about health care reform.

Polls suggest that people are reasonably content with their health care coverage now--even with all its imperfections. They might want to see costs lowered or access increased, but they're deeply skeptical of a Post Office approach to those problems.

This is what supporters of health care reform don't seem to get--that Americans are concerned about the policy itself. Supporters of reform seem more concerned about the politics, casting aspersions on town hall participants, saying they're 'Astroturf' and not grassroots, or 'un-American' for speaking out loudly.

This focus on politics over policy continues in the video ads aired on television and the web. These ads offer an illustration of what opponents are concerned about and how feckless supporters are by focusing on politics over policy. Here's a quick round-up of some ads pro and con:

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