Oct. 7, 2013

Obama Signals: Join ‘Team Obamacare’
By Hazel Trice Edney

President Barack Obama, with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, listen as enrollees in the Affordable Care Act tell their stories in the Oval Office, Oct. 1. The enrollees later joined the President for a statement in the Rose Garden. PHOTO: Pete Souza/The White House 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Amidst a continuing standoff between Congressional Republicans and Democrats this week, President Obama has reached out to his base, asking them to start signing up for Affordable Health Care coverage and to even embrace the Republican-invented word, “Obamacare”.

“I know there are groups that are working to make Obamacare fail, including a group of House Republicans that voted more than 40 times to derail the law,” Obama said in a video emailed to millions of people who he described as “the best grassroots team ever.”

Reminding viewers of the basic reasons for the law - so there would be no more discrimination based on “pre-existing conditions” and so that single mothers can afford both health care and college for their children, among other reasons - the President, encouraged supporters to join “Team Obamacare.”

“There are groups working against this law that are spending a lot of money to try to confuse people about health reform. That’s why it’s so important that all of us make sure that people have the facts,” he says in the video. “You know I’m on Team Obamacare. Today I’m asking you to be a part of it too. I’m asking you to talk to your family and friends, neighbors and co-workers and tell them to check out healthcare.gov for themselves, to see what plan works best for them and their families.”

What was billed as a “personal message for OFA supporters”, appeared to be a direct message from Obama to his large African-American base. OFA, Organizing for Action, is the same email target used to undergird his strategic campaign move in November, surprising Republicans with millions of votes that they least expected.

The President appears to be strategically embracing the term, “Obamacare”, and encouraging supporters to do so even as some news agencies are debating whether or not to even use it.

“The Associated Press and NPR have decided to cut back on use of the term ‘Obamacare,’ with NPR describing the word as seeming ‘to be straddling somewhere between being a politically-charged term and an accepted part of the vernacular,’” reports Richard Prince in his Journal-isms column Oct. 3. “Separately, the AP went further and said the name of the health-care law, the Affordable Care Act, was also prejudicial in that ‘its very name is promotional; opponents believe it will not be affordable for individuals or the country,’” Prince wrote.

The shut-down of non-essential services of the U. S. Government, causing hundreds of thousands of layoffs, remain in effect this week. Republicans continue to hold out on a vote until the President makes concession on the ACA or on entitlements, says Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

The President has refused to negotiate on the issue, his email appearing to making sure his base knows why.

“I couldn’t be more proud to have the support of the best grassroots team ever. Together, we’re going to finish what we started.”