Democrats' Blame Game Keeps Backfiring

Last week, just before leaving on a month-long recess, Rep. Van Hollen (D-MD) declared, with much indignation and more than a twinge of bitterness, that they would not let the health care reform debate be "swiftboated."

That makes for a nice sound bite that appeals to the party's left wing but irritates most of America. And therein lies the Democrats' problem with getting more people to back their health care effort. When questioned on the merits of their proposal, they fall back on what makes them most comfortable-- appealing to the far left of their party. But this comes at the expense of everyone else -- they have consistently ignored the legitimate questions of the vast majority of the population, preferring to duck the tough questions and instead to make others the bad guy.

I'll summarize the rest of the article:

• The Democrats control the Senate, the House and the Executive branch
• The Democrats own the debate, the media, the legislative and executive branch
• The Democrats and Obama have(had) vast war chests of political capital
• No one is "swiftboating" anything...

Also in the article. the Democrats and Obama are failing to do the following:

• Clearly explain how health care will change
• Clearly detail how it will be paid for
• Clearly explain how the reforms will make the system more efficient
• Clearly explain the goals of the reforms

That last point requires additional focus: What are the goals? Initially we were told it was to lower costs, then when the CBO twice refuted any claims of lowering costs the goals changed. Then the goals become to improve the quality of care. Then the goals became to improve efficiencies. Now, the latest goal, is reform the insurance companies.

At every stage the claim is refute and no details are ever given to back up the claim.

Now that the situation as turned dire the Dems are playing the blame game. They are either blaming Bush for inheriting it or the Republicans for blocking... when it was the Blue Dog Democrats that are actually blocking it.

And when push came to shove they actually blamed the media and have crucified the insurance companies as the cause for the delay.

"The responsibility lies with the Democrats to use this time to make their case from health care reform on the merits. I suspect they won't be able to do that-- and I wonder who'll be their next villain. They're running out of targets and ultimately will have no one to blame but themselves when the bill fails."