Mediaboss Marketing

MSNBC: Democrats Are Still Running From ObamaCare
MSNBC: 2014 Democrats Are Still Running From ObamaCare (April 2, 2014)

By: GOPICYMI

Originally posted here:

MSNBC: Democrats Are Still Running From ObamaCare - Video

WASHINGTON Democrats struggling to combat a flood of outside money pouring in to defeat their candidates have found at least a temporary solution: If you can't beat them, brand them.

The latest strategy of Democratic messaging is tying Republican candidates and policies to the party's most prominent and at times vilified financial patrons, billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) initiated the strategy last month when he decried the brothers whose last name is pronounced "coke" from the Senate floor as "shadowy billionaires" and "un-American."

This week, after Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) released his new austere budget, Reid described it as a blueprint for a "modern Kochtopia."

And when the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down overall limits on how much wealthy donors can spend per congressional election, Reid said it was no surprise, "because as you know the Koch brothers are trying to buy America."

It's a campaign strategy that serves several purposes for Democrats, and strategists say the effort is already paying off in grass-roots fundraising and by helping the party crystallize a message against the GOP.

On Thursday, Koch Industries Chief Executive Charles Koch felt compelled to respond and, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, likened the Democratic campaign to "character assassination."

And Republicans dismissed the effort as a sign of Democratic desperation, predicting it would not prevent a GOP takeover of the Senate after the midterm election this fall. They point to a recent George Washington University Battleground poll that found Reid actually had lower favorability ratings than the Kochs and that only 48% of voters had even heard of the brothers.

"It's about the biggest example of distraction politics that I've ever seen," said Levi Russell, a spokesman for the Koch-funded political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity. "Folks care a lot more about how Obamacare is impacting their daily lives than what some senator says on the Senate floor."

But following Reid's lead, other Democrats are now rallying behind his mantra that the GOP is "addicted to Koch."

Read more:

Democrats target Republican ties to Koch brothers

It's not Obamacare that is Democrats' big problem in the 2014 midterms. It's the intensity surrounding Obamacare that should be very worrisome to the party's candidates.

To start, consider the most recent Washington Post-ABC News pollthatshowed that the public was split down the middle over the law. Strong opposition to the law outpaced strong support overall in the survey. And strong Republican opposition surpassed strong Democratic support. The following chart tells the story.

Anew poll out Thursday confirmed what other recent surveys have also shown: Democrats' overarching health-care message is doing better than the alternatives in the eyes of the public, but intensity is a worry for the party. In the NPR surveyconducted by Democrat Stan Greenberg and Republican Whit Ayres, 49percent say "keep-it-but-fix-it" comes closer to their opinion on the Affordable Care Act as compared to 44 percent who align themselves with the predominant GOP posture, which is that the law has done more harm than good.

Both Republican and Democratic voters are lined up behind their party's message. In fact, Democratic intensity in support of "keep-it-but-fix it" is a bit higher than GOP intensity for its party's line. But independents line up with the Republican approach. Forty-two percent side strongly with the Republican message while just 33 percent side strongly with the Democratic one. Overall, independents align themselves with the GOP posture 50 percent to 43 percent.

Other polling has also shown that intensity isn't on Democrats' side in the lead up to the elections.

In a recentWall Street Journal/NBC News survey,47 percent of voters said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports repealing the law compared to 32 percent who said they would be less likely to do so. When it comes to candidates who support keeping and fixing the health-care law, voters were split; 45 percent said they would be more likely to vote for such a candidate and 42 percent said they would be less likely to do so.

All of these findings are problematic for Democrats looking to boost turnout among their base as Republicans are spending millions trying to make the 2014 campaign all about Obamacare.

There's already electoral evidence to suggest that Republicans have the high ground on health-care intensity: The results of the recent Florida special election. In a swing House district, the Republican candidate who supported repealing the law defeated the Democrat who supported keep-it-but-fix-it. Obamacare was a central issue in the campaign.

Go here to read the rest:

Democrats 2014 problem? That intensity thing.

Democrats arent exactly rushing to share the stage with President Barack Obama these days, especially those in tight races.

But his unpopularity didnt deter Michigan Rep. Gary Peters, who is running for an open Senate seat, from appearing alongside Mr. Obama during a stop Wednesday in Ann Arbor to press Congress to raise the federal minimum wage.

Thats because Democrats are banking heavily on the minimum-wage fight to drive turnout this fall, highlighting the issue to energize their base and to paint the GOP as a party that doesnt care about the middle class.

The debate assumes greater significance in Michigan because it is one of four Senate battlegrounds including Alaska, Arkansas and South Dakota where voters will get the chance later this year to decide whether the state should increase its own minimum wage.

These types of ballot measures often serve to rally partisans, giving the party faithful more motivation to vote in an election when the president wont be on the ballot, and the minimum-wage increase garners strong support from Democrats. In a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 81% of Democrats said they would be more likely to back a candidate who supported raising the minimum wage.

Perhaps more encouraging to Democrats is that roughly seven-in-10 independents expressed a similar view.

In Michigan, where Mr. Peters is locked in a tight race with likely Republican nominee Terri Lynn Land, the Democrat needs to rally the partys core constituencies. Mr. Obama won the state by 10 percentage points in 2012. The fall ballot measure raising the minimum wage from $7.40 an hour to $10.10 should give Democrats in union-heavy Michigan another reason to vote in November.

Its not quite that simple in Arkansas, another Senate battleground where voters will decide whether to raise the state minimum wage from $6.25 an hour to $8.50. Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, who faces a tough re-election, wants to raise the state threshold, but not the federal one, arguing the jump to $10.10 is too fast.

While Mr. Pryor needs Democrats to support him in November, he also needs to create as much daylight as possible between himself and the president.

The issue gets even more complicated when you consider Alaska, another state where voters will get the chance to raise the minimum wage later this year. Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, who, like Mr. Pryor, is seeking re-election in a state where the president remains deeply unpopular, supports the federal increase and has even signed onto the Senate bill.

Excerpt from:

Democrats Bank on Minimum-Wage Fight to Drive Voter Turnout

Democrats on Capitol Hill are treading carefully in the wake of this weeks surprise enrollment success for President Obamas healthcare reform law.

While lawmakers are hailing the news that 7.1 million people have gained insurance through ObamaCare exchanges ahead of the first enrollment deadline a number exceeding the initial goal set by the administration many are also eager to direct the focus away from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and concentrate instead on bread-and-butter economic issues ahead of Novembers midterms.

House Democratic leaders emerged Wednesday from their weekly caucus meeting to trumpet an economic agenda that focuses on raising the minimum wage, extending jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and overhauling the nations immigration system. And while a handful of Senate Democrats staged a Tuesday press briefing to cheer Obama-Care enrollment, there were, notably, no vulnerable Democrats in attendance.

Their desire to shift the emphasis, even after a week of good press is, at least in part, a concession that the healthcare law remains a liability for Democrats, particularly in swing areas theyre hoping to pick up in the House and keep in the Senate.

And its a political liability some members readily acknowledge, even as theyre defending the laws underlying policies and touting its benefits.

When you consider that the ACA has been trashed for four years, and people have been led to believe there are really death panels, and youre going to end up with rationed healthcare, a substantial portion of the American public still believes that stuff, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said Wednesday. Our goal is to win the election.

Cleaver said hell soon head to Arizona to campaign for an unnamed Democrat in a close race and hell be avoiding the topic of ObamaCare.

Im not going out there talking about the Affordable Care Act, he said. Im not going to go to a district thats just on the line a possibility for us and start damaging people. Thats crazy.

Obama on Tuesday was quick to trumpet the new enrollment figures, which came at the end of an open enrollment period that was severely crippled by the botched rollout of the administrations online marketplace. The president went after the critics for cheering for the law to fail.

I dont get it, Obama said from the Rose Garden. Why are folks working so hard for people not to have health insurance? Why are they so mad about folks having health insurance?

Continue reading here:

Democrats dont spike ball on ObamaCare