Early Post-Mortems on ObamaCare: Don't Forget the Tea Parties!

Folks are already discussing what went wrong with the Obama administration's healthcare agenda. Carrie Budoff Brown's piece at the Politico suggests that President Obama bears the brunt of the blame:

What went wrong? Bearing the brunt of some of the criticism is Obama himself – once viewed as a sure-fire closer, now facing grumbling on the left for letting critical months slip by without a constant, coherent and consistent argument. Think “change” and “hope” from the campaign, catchwords that Obama practically trademarked. In this fight, his key messages have shifted, from fixing health care to fix the economy, to “stability and security” for people who already have insurance.

And this week, he returned to an argument Democratic strategists said shouldn't be part of the pitch this year – trying to convince Americans they have a “moral obligation” to help people without insurance, a discredited argument from the reform effort under President Bill Clinton.

“I don’t think the messaging has been very clear,” said Celinda Lake, a leading Democratic pollster on health care. But more so, she added, “the campaign to disseminate the messaging has not been as relentless and organized as it needs to be.”

This is good, up to a point. At the video, Mitt Romney argues that the administration not only lost the message from the beggining, but outsourced policy to the hardline leftists in the Democratic Congress. Totally abandoning any effort at bipartisanship, Nancy Pelosi's forces have sought a socialized health bill that the public was guaranteed to reject.

What's interesting in both Budoff Brown and Romney's discussion is the complete omission of the effectiveness of grassroots opposition. In "ObamaCare and the Tea Party Effect," I argued that "grassroots conservative activism" was having a significant influence in shifting public opinion against Democratic healthcare proposals. At the time of publication, public opinion surveys rarely asked specific questions on the effect of tea parties and town halls. Polling shows now, however, that right-wing protests have had a dramatic impact in shifting the debate in this country - and in handing the administration a major domestic policy defeat.

See, USA Today, "Poll: Health Care Views Take Sympathetic Tilt."

See also, "Zogby: Obama Hits Record Low in Poll":

President Barack Obama's popularity has plummeted to a record low, with just 45 percent of voters now approving of his performance, according to the latest Zogby International poll.

Asked whether they approve or disapprove of the president's job performance, just 45.3 percent of likely voters say they approve. That compares with 50.5 percent who disapprove of the job Obama is doing.

The results are a strong indication that contentious national debate over healthcare reform has taken a major toll on the president's popularity.

Hat Tip: Hot Air, "Oh My: Obama Down to 45% Approval in New Zogby Poll."