Legal Commentary

Will A Center Right Health Bill Energize The Dem Base?

By Big Tent Democrat

DemfromCt, citing Peter Hart, argues that it will:

Peter Hart makes the case that the Dems need to rally around their President on health reform.

Democratic voters are strongly in favor of the legislation being pushed by President Barack Obama, particularly constituencies such as blacks, Latinos and self-described liberals. [. . .] "If the Democrats are going to close th[e enthusiasm] gap, they've got to get their people excited. And I don't see how you get those people if you vote no" on the party's health legislation, said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. "I don't think it's about winning the middle. It's really about alienating the base," Mr. Hart said of Democratic lawmakers' calculations about the upcoming health vote.

A little late in the game to be concerned about the Dem base no? Passing a health bill is likely a little better than not passing a health bill, but the base motivation problem is simply not soluble through the health bills anymore imo. The Dems will need a different issue for that. More . . .

Part of the problem is that in fact the health bill is not that popular with Dems. DemfromCt thinks a 64-16 in favor of passage by Dems is a remarkable result. I do too. But for a different reason. It is remarkably low for a signature initiative from a Democratic President.

DemfromCt writes:

Democrats are going to need to win with Democratic voters if they want to be in the game. There's no other way to play.

I have always agreed with this sentiment and have always believed that people who argued for the PPUS on health care and other issues did not fully appreciate this fact. They have allowed the bill to become something that energizes Republicans but not Democrats. At this point, from a political standpoint, Dem just need to finish up whatever they are going to do on health care and try to pivot to a new issue - preferably a populist one like financial reform.

The health bills are not going to help Dems in the November elections. But they need to get the issue out of the way so they can move on to issues that might help them politically.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 17, 2010 (boomark / email).