Searching for Signs of Life On Health Care

One of the first rules of politics: Define your message before opponents define it for you.

Candidate Barack Obama insisted he had learned this lesson in 2004, when Sen. John Kerry ’s presidential bid was derailed after Republican supporters maliciously — and wrongly — defiled the Massachusetts Democrat’s military record.

Kerry countered with the slogan “Reporting for Duty,” and a message; though it was factually accurate, came all too late.

The same is happening to President Obama’s health care plans right now, except the president has yet to snap back with an appropriate response to mounting criticism.

Pundits say Obama over-learned from Hillary Clinton’s failures in the early 1990s when she and President Clinton tried to fix a troubled health care system before it became the mess we have now, with 47 million Americans lacking coverage. Others say Obama over-promised in the 2008 campaign; he can’t change a system controlled by special interests, so he now must work within the system.

Truth is in both assessments.

Obama has largely left all of the work on revamping health care to Congress. In fact he’s been too hands-off, so much so that at a nationally televised news conference last month, he didn’t have a plan to sell. The result, as I wrote was the president easily got off-message and left many Americans scratching their heads: what did he say?

He also left the door open for fake crazy-talk about death panels and throwing grandma from the train.

On Aug. 10, 2009, Obama predicted Congress would pass his sweeping health care overhaul this fall as more “sensible and reasoned arguments” prevail. But he gave no details of a plan.

The result of such bad communication: There is so much confusion that people acting out at public health care forums don’t even know what they are acting out about.

Last year Obama spoke loftily and often about limiting the role of lobbyists and special interest groups when it comes to overhauling the health care system.

“We will break the stranglehold that a few big drug and insurance companies have on the health care market. ... It’s become clear that some of these companies are dramatically overcharging Americans for what they offer...” Obama said in 2008. “We’re not going to get change unless we can overcome the resistance [from] the drug companies, the insurance companies, the HMOs, those who are making a major profit from the system currently. Now I think all these industries have a role to play. ... We want to listen to what they have to say. They should have a seat at the table, but they can’t buy every chair.”

Now we find out the White House has been dealing with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents drug companies, behind closed doors. Drug companies are set to spend $150 million in ads to help push Obama’s changes, but in exchange for what?

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