Harry Reid Runs on Health Care

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Jon Ralston gets a hold of three new ads from the Nevada Senator’s re-election campaign:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-tJ4bUZzsY]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngJtaYV_2Bg]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzOIVzzRIYU]

There’s a brief biographical aside in the second one, but for the most part, they’re a proactive effort to sell Nevada voters on the health care law Reid championed as Majority Leader. Health reform is not necessarily what he wants to be talking about, but it’s a conscious choice to get ahead of inevitable Republican criticism and sell popular elements of the bill (ending pre-existing conditions, a small business tax credit, closing the Medicare prescription “doughnut hole”) in the framework of Reid’s favorite topic: “Nevada families.”

UPDATE 1: Ben Smith reports grateful health reform advocacy groups PhRMA (the pharmaceutical lobby) and Families USA (a health care consumer organization) are on the air talking up, of all things, Reid’s record on jobs:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCI5PSTOd2o]

UPDATE 2: Reid’s likely Republican challenger Sue Lowden, answering some questions about a gaffe that’s had more legs (and wings) than I think she expected, says “the Reid campaign is desperate to change the subject from his very unpopular health care bill.” These three ads seem to suggest otherwise. (via Steve Benen)