Dems launch $125 million health care propaganda campaign

In an effort to rally support for the highly unpopular government takeover of the nation's health care system, Democratic are planning to raise and spend $125 million on a PR campaign featuring The Health Information Center.  From Politico:

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Victoria Kennedy — widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) — are expected to be named co-chairmen of a $125 million campaign that White House allies are rolling out to defend health care reform amid growing signs Democrats are failing to get political traction on the issue.

The extraordinary campaign, which could provide an unprecedented amount of cover for a White House in a policy debate, reflects urgency among Democrats to explain, defend and depoliticize health care reform now that people are beginning to feel the new law’s effects.

The Health Information Center is being started by Andrew Grossman, a veteran Democratic operative who founded Wal-Mart Watch, a labor-backed group to challenge the world’s largest retailer on employee relations and other fronts.

Grossman told POLITICO that the lessons of Wal-Mart Watch will be helpful on health reform. “When you treat people with respect and try to understand how they interact with businesses and politics, you can move them,” he explained.

The estimated budget is $25 million a year for five years. And Grossman has already begun raising money from unions, foundations and corporations.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday will kick off a series of high-profile health care reform events ahead of the November elections. The job will continue as long as he’s president, because the biggest provisions don’t kick in until 2014.

From The New York Times:

The president has also been intimately involved in planning the public relations rollout. Convinced that he had a top-notch team on substance but that his communications effort needed shoring up, Mr. Obama personally recruited Stephanie Cutter, an experienced Democratic communications strategist, to run the effort.

Ms. Cutter has put together an assertive campaign; a central element will be the effort to reassure older citizens, who are more likely to vote and are among the groups most skeptical of the bill. On Tuesday, older Americans from around the country will phone in from “satellite town halls” to ask questions of the president, an event that will be shown live on C-Span.

 The President just can't seem to stop campaigning long enough to lead and govern.  While the U.S. Gulf Coast economy and ecosystem face imminent devastation from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Obama White House is focused on a desperate and, indeed, transparent propaganda campaign to bolser approval for a law that already passed.

I predict that this effort will increase voter turnout in November.  Just not in the way Democrats hope.