The Dems need to advertise STRONGLY about the health care reform act.

[Honeycombe8]

This has been a continuing HUGE issue with the public ever since it passed. One reason for that, IMO, is that the administration has never bothered to explain it or advertise it.

I'd bet that most people, incl. many in DU, don't even know what it provides for.

It's big, it's complicated, and it has a lot of parts. So selling it wouldn't be easy. But they could take the main points and sell them in a big way to the public. Once they know what it provides for, almost every middle class and poor person would be in favor of it.

This is a critical thing, IMO. This misunderstanding of the healthcare reform act could lose the election for Obama. So far, what the public thinks it knows about "Obamacare" is only what the Republicans and Libertarians tell them. Because THEY'VE sure made a point of advertising about it.

In the absence of real information, the general public will believe the only people telling them about a program.

[BlueDemKev]

1. The problem is...

...if the Supreme Court overturns the law they'll look awfully silly if they advertise heavily between now and late June. The White House should have been advertising about the health care law's benefits for the past two years....their publicity has been horrible on it and is largely the reason why so many Americans are still uneasy about this great new law.

[DFW]

4. It's a gamble for sure, but I'd still go with it

After all, if the ads work, and public sentiment can be swayed to view the Act positively, the right-wing extremists on the Supreme Court, who are nothing if not intensely political these days, will pay attention. Besides, they know full well that sick people with life-threatening diseases can buy guns, too. In fact they have voted time and time for their right to own guns. I would not want to be a right-wing Supreme Court Justice voting to deny health care in a city like Washington, D.C. where Congress just voted last year to liberalize gun ownership, and a LOT of well-armed poor people need health care they can't afford on their own.

[BlueDemKev]

6. I'm not sure....

....with the SCOTUS vote expected to be very close and with one or two conservative justices possibly still straddling the fence on this, heavy political advertising could persuade them to vote to overturn the law. The Supreme Court's independence in political matters is all but dead.

[bigdarryl]

7. I heard they made there ruling in private two months ago

[SoutherDem]

2. I agree, but it might be too late.

I agree I don't know everything about the HRC, but I know enough to know what most people "know" is wrong. I have heard so much "disinformation" pushed by the Republicans and believed by many if not most Americans make me sick.

I MIGHT understand someone who has a job which provides health care feel they don't need it. What I don't get are those who have NO health insurance. They go to the doctor only when they must because they can't afford to go, the very people this will help, who don't want it.

Also, those who somehow feel "they" will be paying for someone else's health care don't understand that they already are paying for others health care, through high medical bills, higher insurance premiums and taxes already collected.

[ELI BOY 1950]

3. Obamacare

So right , the people do not know what is in the Affordable Health Care Act. Back in march when Santorum had his surge he was killing Obamacare...the next day he was talking like a middle calls guy saying he has a handicapped child (obamacare helps) and kids
in college (obamacare helps)....my point is the people only believe what they hear...sad but true.

also, obama did a terrible job in explaining it.

now with the Supreme Court (republican) , they will override the bill and it will hurt us in a big way.

the election will be tight...we must talk about Bain ( job creation in Mass. #47 out of 50 when he was gov.) , if the Supreme Court
overrides it is Mitt's idea and we must get the 99% out to vote...

each state has a Achilles heal...florida...medicare and SS...ohio and much...auto bailout etc.

we will win but we must be careful and stay on message.

[JayhawkSD]

5. Pushing hard on HCR would be a huge blunder

For one thing, it is unpopular and losing ground. While that may be due to lack of understanding, it is too complex to sell with thirty-second sound bites, and far, far too easy to condem with thirty-second sound bites.

But most of all it is too far removed from the topic that polls as the top concern of uncommitted voters; jobs and the economy. Democrats should be talking about that and every minute that they spend talking about anything else makes them sound like they don't care about jobs and the economy.

I don't particularly like the tenor of Obama's "attack" on Romney's Bain connection, but he has it right. He is keeping the topic on jobs and the economy, and refuting Romney's claim to superiority on being able to "manage the economy." That is precisely where the conversation needs to be. Democrats who run on anything else will lose.

[hedgehog]

8. I think people need to be reminded. For us, it meant a savings of several thousand dollars for each

year our older children remained under our policy and didn't have to buy the college's policy!