Colorado Democrat Declares Obamacare a 'Success,' But He Won't Run On It

Obamacare, President Obama’s landmark unpopular legislation, puts Democrats in a tough spot. They all voted for it, at least in the Senate, and they have all continued to justify that vote.

That nearly none of them bothered to read the 2000-plus page bill before voting on it isn’t brought up enough. That the pathway to force it through Congress included a detour through “demon pass” isn’t brought up enough anymore either. The Democrats were so hell-bent on passing that law that they were prepared to do an end run around normal congressional procedure. And they did end up passing the bill against the wishes of the majority of the American people.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) is one of those Democrats who voted for Obamacare. Because of that, he is now in a tough spot. He has a credible Republican opponent in Rep. Cory Gardner. Gardner has been hammering Udall for supporting Obamacare, and the best that Udall has managed to come up with in response is to attack Gardner’s conservative voting record in the House. Gardner hits back effectively, charging Udall with voting in support of the unpopular Barack Obama 99% of the time.

One thing Udall refuses to run on, is that vote of his to pass Obamacare. It is not showing up in his ads. He barely mentions it in his campaign speeches.

Denver reporter Eli Stokols asked Udall about that over the weekend.

Stokols notes that Obamacare is “the biggest legislative accomplishment” of Udall’s time in the Senate. Udall voted for it, but is “reluctant” to talk about it.

Udall hauls out the Democrat talking points on health care before and after Obamacare — that previous system “discriminated against women” and that Americans “could be thrown off your policy at a moment’s notice.” We still can, and millions have been, directly because of Obamacare, as Udall surely knows.

Udall also touts, without specifically naming, Obamacare success stories and says that the law is “far from perfect” but improves things.

If it’s so great, why isn’t he running on it then? Because “there’s a lot of issues on the campaign trail,” or something.