We’ll start with what I’m calling “The Premise,” courtesy of Mark Thiessen:
When vulnerable Senate Democrats start running ads in which they openly declare “I worked with President Obama on the Affordable Care Act. It’s something I’m proud of,” then you’ll know public opinion on Obamacare has turned a corner.
That is not happening. In Alaska, Sen. Mark Begich just released a new ad boasting how he fought “the Department of Interior, the EPA, NOAA, national Democrats and the White House” to allow oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean. Riding a snow machine across the frozen tundra, Begich stops, takes off his helmet and declares “I’m Mark Begich — I fought for five years to get the permits so we could drill under this ice. And we won. . . . Sooner or later, Washington will figure out that I don’t take no for an answer.”
In Louisiana, Sen. Mary Landrieu is similarly distancing herself from Obama. The embattled senator has a new ad up declaring that “the administration’s policies are simply wrong when it comes to oil and gas production to in this nation,” hitting Obama for his offshore drilling moratorium and “cheating” Lousiana out of oil royalties (“I will not rest until this injustice is fixed,” Landrieu thunders).
And now for The Conclusion, which comes from Salena Zito:
The first political ad warmly embracing ObamaCare, by a candidate not named Obama, hit state airwaves last week. It likely will be the last pro-ObamaCare ad ever made.
Allyson Schwartz boldly went where no Democrat has gone before, trying to gain ground in a primary race that is slipping swiftly from her hands.
The suburban Philadelphia congresswoman, seeking the Democrat nomination for governor, not only extolled ObamaCare’s virtues in her ad; she called out her rivals on social media, in press releases and on MSNBC for not being equally pro-ObamaCare. “I’m proud of it. And I believe the other Democrats in this race should also speak up and talk about their pride in this law,” she said.
If this is how she genuinely feels, then at least give her credit for standing up for her principles. But if she is using the issue as a wedge to escape her poor polling, then it only strengthens the notion that ObamaCare is poison for Democrats.
Poison, comeuppance, toMAYto, toMAHto.
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