A Campaign on Obamacare Means Dems Win

Yesterday in Frankfort, Mitch McConnell and Ran Paul rallied the teabaggers with the same old worn-out tirades against Obamacare.

Democratic candidates across the state - and the nation - should be celebrating. They're handing us the election on a platter.

Democratic social programs have always been winners with a majority of voters - when Democratic candidates make the case.  It's only when Democrats concede the field and run away from the New Deal - fail to passionately defend Social Security and Medicare - that repugs win.

Digby:

According to this polling done by Democracy corps late last month, if the Democrats make that case (and don't get caught up in "balanced approach" mumbo jumbo bullshit) they will take the voters that Mitt Romney and the Republicans need to win:

The President starts out with a 3-point margin against Mitt Romney, 49 percent to 46 percent. When asked to judge the two candidates in a very narrow way—Romney’s support for the Ryan budget because it reflects his values and Obama’s opposition because of what it would do to the most vulnerable—the vote shifts. Obama wins a majority of voters (51 percent) and his margin more than doubles to 8 points (51 to 43 percent.) This is a significant finding.

Meanwhile, in deep-red North Dakota, Democratic Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp is running away with the election by ... running on Obamacare.

 

Steve M.:

Yes, for her that last line has a double meaning -- go back to the days before the law and go back to her time with cancer. But if you're a Democrat who hasn't experienced a health crisis like this personally, don't you know people who have? Friends? Relatives? Constituents? Talk about it. Make it real.

Heitkamp also doesn't seem ashamed to say she's voting for her party's presidential candidate, even in a state where he'll lose:

... Heitkamp says she'll be voting for Obama in November -- because Mitt Romney supports the House Republican budget.

"People ask me why, and I point to that budget," she says.

... Heitkamp is betting that the House budget, with its Medicare restructuring and dramatic program cuts will seem even more radical to the emotionally conservative North Dakotans than the stimulus or health care law. "There's $180 billion in farm cuts in there," she said, launching into a litany of government aid it would strip away from North Dakota.

According to a new poll, she has a 6-point lead, in a state where Obama trails by 19.

Yeah, she slammed Obama a couple of months ago, saying he "failed in the one test America had for him, which was to unite the country." That's nasty. But I'm still giving her points for slamming the GOP agenda. Republicans nationalize every election. Democrats need to do the same. The national Republican agenda will be horrible for everyone, and everyone could grasp that. But Democrats need to say it. (Are you listening, Elizabeth Warren?)

Clare McCaskill is going to lose her seat - and possibly hand the Senate to repugs - to national disgrace Todd Mouthbreather Akin because she's running away from Obamacare, away from the New Deal, away from Democratic strength.

When Dems respond to repug attacks on the programs people love by cowering in corners, they lose. When Dems respond by going on offense to praise and protect those programs, they win.

Democratic candidate Bill Adkins, running for the open seat in the "Nobama" (h/t Zandar) Fourth District, is campaigning as a full-throated supporter of the president and Obamacare. He's got an uphill climb in that repug racist stronghold. But he wouldn't have a chance in hell running repug-lite like Ben Chandler, who's going to lose his should-be-safely-blue seat in the Sixth to proud repug Candy Barr.