is pretty clear in the latest CNN poll. Sixty percent of younger Americans favor the Obama effort; the exact percentage of older ones oppose it:
Health Care
The Latest Computer Virus?
Could be a real one: Epidemiologists are urging flu sufferers to blog and tweet their symptoms.
Unreconciled
Brian Beutler at TPM previews the next wave of health care reform stories: why taking the reconciliation route–the one that only requires 51 votes–isn’t going to work. His argument is that it would force a more robust public option, which some of the moderates in the party would oppose. I’m not sure about that–but then, no one really …
E-mail of the Day
Who says the Democrats don’t have a coherent message on health care reform? Why, look at the message press release that just landed in my emailbox from the Democratic National Committee. It purports to be the text of an email* sent from Organizing for America Director Mitch Stewart to the OFA list, and it says:
Friend —
Over
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Seniors, Health Reform and the AARP
Seniors, traditionally a reliable Democratic voting bloc, are emerging as the most powerful force against health care legislation. Kate Pickert looks at why.
Adios
Looks like the charade of including Chuck Grassley and Mike Enzi in the health care negotiations is over. It is not impossible that other Republicans who are not Senators from Maine can be located to support health care reform. But it’s also entirely possible that the Republicans will continue their kamikaze ways and oppose a reform that …
Hucka-bull
Where do they come up with these things?
Mike Huckabee told his radio audience today that under the Obama health plan, Ted Kennedy would have been told to “go home to take pain pills and die” upon being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Leave aside the fact that, with all the medical intervention that money could buy, the Senator …
26 Lies About Health Reform
FactCheck.org takes a look at one viral e-mail whose “facts” are frequently quoted at town hall meetings and discovers:
The chain e-mail purports to give “a few highlights” from the first half of the bill, but the list of 48 assertions is filled with falsehoods, exaggerations and misinterpretations. We examined each of the
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Health Reform: The Outlook
There’s been a lot of suggestion this week that Ted Kennedy’s death might be a moment that brings his former colleagues in Congress together with a renewed sense of purpose, one that forces them to bridge their differences, to work together to pass meaningful health reform as a tribute to him. I think Ted would have been the first to …
Grassley Knocks White House, Republican Cooperation Faltering
In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, a key Finance Committee Republican, raised serious doubts about the prospects of a bipartisan deal on health care in the Senate. He also offered a pointed criticism of Barack Obama’s hands-off strategy to health care reform negotiation, which is based on the idea that …
Somewhat Better Than A Dining Room Table
Jon Stewart had on Betsy McCaughey last night. McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York, who made her career and reputation in 1993 by speaking out against President Clinton’s health reform effort with arguments that often ranged from slightly misleading to outright fiction. (See here for the Atlantic’s Jim Fallows on one of …
Obama Looks To Heavens (For Health Reform Inspiration)
The debate over health reform, most days, concerns earthly things, like spreadsheets, CBO projections, medicare reimbursements rates, and health insurance qualifications. It’s a tough one to win politically, because not just because it is so boring and complicated, but also because it’s complexity makes misrepresentation easier. So Obama …
Health Care Odds And Ends
1. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, still sounding a bit like the head of the DCCC, says Republican leadership “has made a strategic decision that defeating President Obama’s health care proposal is more important for their political goals than solving the health insurance problems that Americans face every day.”
2. White …