August May Be "Swift Boat" Health Care Month

President Obama now acknowledges that health care legislation won't happen before the August congressional recess, which lasts all month. In Cleveland on Thursday, he spoke of an "end of the year" deadline, and also mentioned, more hopefully, "this fall."

Beware. When the cat's away, the rats will play.

We all saw what happened in July and August 2004, as John Kerry took time off to gear up for the fall presidential campaign. In his case, the gear was for para-sailing and road biking. He essentially hit autopilot, while a band of unethical and amoral creeps unleashed scurrilous attacks on his military record.

By the time Kerry gave his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on July 29, he obviously knew what was coming. The stage behind him was filled with fellow veterans from the Vietnam War. Yet remarkably, there was no bounce for the Democrats coming out of their quadrennial soirée.

It's important to remember that "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth" didn't use the official Republican Party apparatus to move their message. The entire campaign against Kerry was a separate entity, financed mainly by three wealthy George Bush supporters from Texas.

Bob Perry (no relation to the current governor) was the rainmaker, pitching in $4.4 million. Harold Simmons ($2 million) and T. Boone Pickens ($2 million) rounded out the principal triumvirate. Ultimately, the effort raised and spent $20 million. (Simmons also funded the anti-Obama William Ayers-is-a-terrorist-pal-of-Barack ads in the 2008 election cycle.)

The first Swift Boat ad hit the airwaves August 5, 2004. The Kerry campaign didn't respond in any appreciable way until August 17, and Kerry himself didn't address the matter until August 19. The next day, the second Swift Boat ad started running. The piling on had begun, and Kerry would be dogged all the way to a November defeat.

Fast forward five years. Republicans make no bones about their desire to block meaningful health care reform for middle class Americans. They openly want it to be Obama's "Waterloo," and are committed to stopping it on behalf of insurance and pharmaceutical patrons. They don't hide the fact that the long August recess is key to their strategy of building opposition.

A "Swift Boat" type effort could well be nigh as the dog days of summer settle in. From bow to stern and port to starboard, the White House better be on guard. And have a plan, too.

There are sharks in the water, and they're circling.

Comments

[freerovingbovine]

I am so happy you brought up the Swiftboat incident.

If I ran an ad to counter this kind of smear, tt would go something like this:

If you bought into the Swiftboat ad, you were fooled into making a bad decision. Don't be fooled again. The producers of this ad were not committing the fallacy when they lie about John Kerry's war record. They deliberately stoled your ability to make an informed decision using credible but false statements and bet that you would not take the trouble to verify them.

Regarding healthcare, first get the facts and second hold those who fooled you into making a bad choice responsible, like you did in 2008.

[Henryk A. Kowalczyk - Huffpost Blogger]

You focus on the game aspect of the process. You seem to be not concerned in understanding what the core of our problem is, and what our viable solutions might be.

Your text falls into the category of impassioned arguments focusing more on imposing on others ideological inclinations of an author, less on finding out what the problem is. I used different approach, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfOR-MRPIG8 , and summarized my findings in my open letter to President Obama, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/henryk-a-kowalczyk/the-health-care-bill-wher_b_242496.html .

My conclusions are not as important as my way of arriving with them. It could be that I missed some important facts, or have flaws in my logic. If you can find gaps in my reasoning, point them to me. Let us have here some debate on the merit.

[Jackson Williams - Huffpost Blogger]

I appreciate your reading my latest post, and I want you to know that I took the time to read your HuffPost open letter to the president. All 3,380 words of it! In the process, I fathered three children, one of whom is headed to college this fall.

Seriously, though, I did read it, and I think our two pieces have completely different goals and purposes. Your open letter to President Obama is about the broad issue of health care reform in its totality, and you have long sections broken up by topic titles. For example, one section, at 500 words, is "What is health insurance, and what should it be?" Another section, with 850 words, is "Why have health insurance premiums become so high?" Still another is "What is the purpose of business?"

Clearly, your HuffPost to President Obama is all-encompassing. That's why it's over 3,000 words long.

My blog entry has a far more modest and targeted goal, so it's less than 400 words. It's about one thing, and one thing only: how the vacuum created by the August congressional recess may well be filled by insurance industry lackeys mounting a disingenuous advertising campaign (à la the Swift Boaters against Kerry in 2004) designed to sway public opinion against the president's efforts at health care reform.

That's what I wanted to write about, and that's all I did write about.

Again, thanks for reading.

[Mike Bradley]

Sure the finger can be pointerd at the republicans for supporting a status quo that leaves millions out in the cold and strains middle class families.

[Mecheng]

Nice try but health care reform is sinking because Obama's fellow Dems are sinking it. Further, Obama is disingenuous. As an example, has he said ANYTHING about tort reform, malpractice premium costs., and defensive medicine NO! Why ? Because he is in the pocket of tort lawyers! Yes, change we can believe in!!

[Jackson Williams - Huffpost Blogger]

You write: "Nice try but health care reform is sinking because Obama's fellow Dems are sinking it."

You're saying that if the vast majority of dems vote for health care reform, and all the repubs vote against it, and a handful of blue dog dems join the repubs and thus kill it, then the failure is because "Dems are sinking it."

That makes no sense. Sure, the practical, mathematical effect is that health care reform fails, but if 90% of dems are for it and 90% of repubs are against it, and 10% of blue dog dems vote with the repubs to kill it, then guess what? It's fair to blame A/ the repubs and B/ the blue dog dems....in that order.

You act as if the vast majority of repub opposition to health care reform somehow doesn't even matter.

[Carl Caroli]

There is no doubt in my mind that that is what is going to happen. There is also little doubt in my mind that the president is aware of this and is more than willing to use it against the perpetrators in an effective manner. Fortunately, while I don't agree with the POTUS all the time, he is a brilliant tactician. Timing is everything in life and he's more than aware of that, unlike Mr. Kerry.

[offred]

I'm a progressive with real reservations about Rahm Emanuel, but I'm fairly sure he'll have some pretty big shark guns ready, if he knows what's good for the Democratic party.

[lj9283]

If one just follows the posts here on HuffPo you would have noted that over the past week there has been a significant rise in the number of false claims posted concerning the Health Care Bill, there has been a significant rise in the number of false attacks on posted and sourced statistics with pure hearsay, and there has been a rise in the red herring responses to well thought out and meaningful posts.

The Right Wing is pushing fear and loathing because they have nothing else.

[PigLipstick]

Or maybe not !

Obama seems to be doing an excellent job of sinking his own boat without the GOP's help; why would they want to interfere ? It's time for the Democrats to end the Obama Love Fest and actually look at the policies he is supporting, though that would be in opposition to the agenda of the corporate owned Main Stream Media. All that campaign money donated by big Pharma and Health Insurance Companies is having the desired effect !

[lj9283]

Sorry that I forgot how the additional time will help the Right Wing to act as "fluffers" to the outrage of the Progressives against any compromise over what they see as a slight to not achieve single payer health care.

The Progressives will shout about non existent betrayal (Obama did not campaign on single payer health care), and frighten more and more moderates away from the center-left.

Progressives have been played like this by the Conservative movement for a generation, and the still fall for the con.

[audadvnc]

It's already started - there are ads all over CNN today from BigPharm, saying "yeah, we're for health care, too!". Round one in the battle for the brains of middle America...

[mom of three]

While you're right in your article, Nate Silver Makes a series of excellent points with his post entitled:
"The Healtcare Timeout is Fine."

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/07/healthcare-timeout-is-fine.html

[1oldlady]

If there is any good news to this story, it is the fact that most Americans are wise to this tackit! However, it does not minimize the "pro-active" people must be in order to get what the people demand, Heath care reform and a public option.

Now is the time to pour any dollars into orgainazations that can expose the health care industry's motive!!!!

[calfacon]

Exactly right Jackson. This is why delay means defeat.

[NWGuy]

In the fight against necessary reform for health care, the repubs will support a swift boat attack. But, so far, all they are doing is saying no. They have not offered any reasonable plan, even to the point of saying they don't need a plan. All they do is accuse with innuendo, talking points, and scare tactics. I haven't seen much at all from them with any facts or viable options.

By being against reform, by extension, that implies that they are FOR the current system -- for 50 million without access to health care; for millions more having treatment denied, even after years of faithfully paying premiums; for companies having to drop or significantly reduce coverage for their employees due to increasing costs; premiums raised, especially for those with claims so to leave the insurer rosters; and especially for soaring profits for the insurance companies.

We need to stop talking about them being against reform and talk about what they are for - in short, insurance company profits and limited to no access to care for Americans. Let Americans be the judge and jury.

[kwijibo]

You can't blame the GOP for this.

The party of the Liberal Left, the Democrats, have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a 70-seat majority in the House. They also hold the White House.

If every GOP Senator voted to filibuster, there aren't enough of them to prevail.

Even if every GOP Congressman voted to keep the bill in Committee, the Democrat majority could still vote it out to the floor, where a Democrat majority could pass it.

Obama, being a Democrat himself, would sign it into law, all of this without any Republican voting for it.

No, you can't blame the GOP for this one. It's all in the Democrats' hands. Such are the breaks with having a super-majority.

[Jackson Williams - Huffpost Blogger]

The commenter writes, "You can't blame the GOP for this."

Actually, I didn't. Let's be clear: The GOP is very much opposed to health care reform, that's a given. But as I clearly stated, "It's important to remember that 'Swift Boat Veterans For Truth' didn't use the official Republican Party apparatus to move their message."

Just like five years ago, any similar Swift Boating against health care reform in 2009 will be funded by economic interests operating outside the GOP's official walls, if for no other reason than the GOP doesn't have the money in its own coffers.

It's also how the anti-reform ads from '95 (the infamous Harry and Louise) were funded. In that case, the sugar daddy was the "Health Insurance Association of America," now called "America’s Health Insurance Plans."

Beyond all that, however, why can't I blame the GOP? If the vast majority of repubs roadblock health care reform, joined by a few conservative blue dog dems, then I'll blame the GOP and conservative blue dog dems. Simple enough.

[PigLipstick]

"Republicans make no bones about their desire to block meaningful health care reform for middle class Americans. They openly want it to be Obama's "Waterloo," "

I'm a life long Democrat supporter but in this matter the GOP just may be right in trying to block Obama because his healthcare plan is obviously very supportive of private Health Insurance Company interests and has very little to offer individual citizens affiliated with both political parties. Even though the legislation is currently in limbo, the Democrats in Congress continue their assault today on Medicare and Medicaid, programs that stand in opposition to their attempt to keep big insurance in the mainstream of our healthcare system. I would say that an attempt by the White House to set up a private agency, staffed with accountants and bureaucrats, which will determine what level of healthcare will be provided by Medicare and Medicaid based solely on cost savings, a move to gut these 45 year old programs that have and are serving many Americans very well. This private committee will report exclusively to the President and have no obligation to interface with Congress; what has happen to co-equal branches of government specified in the Constitution, if one still exists ? If this agency is allowed, we will officially be embarking on the road to Fascism !

[BobLablah]

Has anyone ever collected the money the swiftboaters offered to anyone who could prove them wrong?

[wesinohio]

Kerry is a decorated veteran. All the swiftboaters had was character assassination. Their reward offer was proffered insincerely, since in spite of documented evidence proving they were wrong, they never acknowedged that they were wrong. They were like with the birthers - facts didn't matter.

[KHAAANNN]

Look, the media is complicit in ALL of this.
They are now treating the VERY serious Health Care deliberations as a SPORTING EVENT.
MSNBC actually called their pre-Obama press conference coverage a "PRE-GAME SHOW"!
It is all about WHO-WINS vs. WHO-LOSES. No one CARES anymore about the subject or the consequences it has become a SPECTACLE to be EXPLOITED by the media.
That whirring sound you hear is Walter Cronkite spinning in his grave right now.

[MajorNews]

Very true.
The root cause of why nothing gets in US, except more Wars and our Taxes wasted on a Gargantuan Military, is that 99% of US Media is right-wing. Just consider this FACT: in last 90 days Wall Street Journal has written 100% of Articles against health care reform, lying and lying about Universal health care, from "Canadians want to come to US for their health care..." to "We will not be able to create new miracle medicine..", to "universal health care will lead to economic collapse...", etc. etc. Lie and non-sense. For details of US Media is 99% right-wing and Wall Street journal lies and lies, you can read these:
http://www.anoox.com/news/show_selected_article.php?article=34031