{"id":270,"date":"2009-05-13T20:15:54","date_gmt":"2009-05-14T00:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/05\/13\/are-these-people-democrats\/"},"modified":"2009-05-13T20:15:54","modified_gmt":"2009-05-14T00:15:54","slug":"are-these-people-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/05\/13\/are-these-people-democrats\/","title":{"rendered":"Are These People Democrats?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even the headline on the AP story<\/a> tonight looks like it might be a mistake:  \u201cObama, Dems Press Unified Message On Health Care.\u201d  It\u2019s not often we see Dems and \u201cunified message\u201d in the same paragraph, let alone in a headline.  But there it is.\"obama<\/a>  Of course, before you get too excited, the lede includes the word \u201cscrambled.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe White House scrambled to unify Democrats behind a single health care appeal Wednesday \u2014 lower costs, plenty of choice \u2014 amid concerns Republicans could scare votes away with images of a ghastly system run by bureaucrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is hope.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201c{President Obama] spoke to reporters after he and other Senate Democrats met with White House political adviser David Axelrod as the White House pressed to get the party behind a unified message on health legislati\"axelrod,<\/a>on.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Senators emerged with agreement on emphasizing affordability and choice. The issue of coverage for the uninsured would be tied to affordability for all, as when uninsured people drive up costs when they go to emergency rooms for routine care.<\/p>\n

\u2018This is an effort to coordinate our messaging so we present a health care reform effort that the American people trust,\u2019 said Sen. Dick Dirbin, D-Ill., the No. 2 Senate Democrat.\u201d <\/p>\n

But wait! Did the Dems really think about coordinating their message all by themselves?  Was this a seminal moment when they realized that it helps if you don\u2019t step on each other\u2019s message?  Nah, we didn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cLast week political strategist Frank Luntz gave Republicans detailed advice on how to attack the Democrats’ health plan, even though it doesn’t yet exist in anything approaching final form.<\/p>\n

Luntz’s advice included the use of lines like "a committee of Washington bureaucrats will \"durbin<\/a> establish the standard of care for all Americans."<\/p>\n

Luntz’s memo to Republicans served as \u2018an interesting catalyst for us,\u2019 [Sen. Dick] Durbin said.\u201d  <\/em><\/strong>(emphasis added)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Oh well, at least they got the message from Luntz\u2019s message, which is:  plan, coordinate, execute<\/u>.<\/p>\n

(We\u2019ll see how well they execute.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even the headline on the AP story tonight looks like it might be a mistake:  \u201cObama, Dems Press Unified Message On Health Care.\u201d  It\u2019s not often we see Dems and \u201cunified message\u201d in the same paragraph, let alone in a headline.  But there it is.  Of course, before you get too excited, the lede includes… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[52,35,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}