Obama's biggest mistake in pushing health care law

obamacare.jpgHe didn't have a good name for it. His opponents grabbed onto the pejorative-sounding "Obamacare" and after a while the president said, somewhat amazingly, that he was all right with the crude moniker. He shouldn't have been - his acquiescence meant that the other side had basically commandeered the legislation's branding, which is turning out to be a stupendous blunder. Did he think it didn't matter? Did ego get the better of him? As a major component of the law takes effect next week, Obamacare has become the accepted shorthand - even among major media outlets - to the balky-sounding Affordable Care Act. Which brings up another major blunder. From political strategist Douglas Jeffe:

Something like "Americare" or "Health Security' might have caught on and saved the White House a lot of grief. The Affordable Care Act is a name that could only come out of Washington or an ad agency working for a shady insurance company. No real person uses the term affordable in their everyday speech. They might say "cheap" or "inexpensive." But "affordable" ? Give me a break. It's almost as warm, fuzzy and understandable as "sequester."

[CUT]

The most troubling aspect of the term "Obamacare" is that, in a highly polarized political environment, partisanship attaches itself to the program itself. Support and opposition to the ACA in the polls follow party identification and the program's favorability and unfavorability trend along with the President's popularity. Social Security and Medicare were every bit as controversial as the ACA, but they weren't identified solely with Franklin D. Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson. After a few years of implementation and the realization that the dire warnings were groundless, these two big programs settled in and were accepted by the American people. This scenario seems far less probable for "Obamacare". GOP passions against the President are too deep to expect that the Republicans in Congress will ever let go of this bone.

More by Mark Lacter:
American-US Air settlement with DOJ includes small tweak at LAX
Socal housing market going nowhere fast
Amazon keeps pushing for faster L.A. delivery
Another rugged quarter for Tribune Co. papers
How does Stanford compete with the big boys?
Those awful infographics that promise to explain and only distort
Best to low-ball today's employment report
Further fallout from airport shootings
Crazy opening for Twitter*
Should Twitter be valued at $18 billion?
Recent Politics stories:
Obama meets with victims of LAX shooting*
Maria Elena Durazo profile names a key name *
President Obama's arrival timed to rush hour (again)
Obama will visit DreamWorks Animation, Magic's home
Some USC students wish they were invited to Bush speech

New at LA Observed
On the Media Page
Go to Media

On the Politics Page
Go to Politics
Arts and culture

Sign up for daily email from LA Observed

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


Advertisement
Mark Lacter
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.
 
Mark Lacter, business writer and editor was 59
The multi-talented Mark Lacter
LA Observed on Twitter and Facebook