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Go Home Romney Death Watch

JONATHAN CHAIT NOVEMBER 9, 2010

Romney Death Watch

BY JONATHAN CHAIT

In his 60 Minutes interview, President Obama again cited the similarity to Mitt Romney's health care bill as evidence of the moderation of the Affordable Care Act:

We thought that if we shaped a bill that wasn't that different from bills that had previously been introduced by Republicans, including the Republican governor of Massachusetts, who's now running for president, we  would be able to find common ground.

Mitt Romney Central goes ballistic:

The notion that the Dems specifically tried to pattern ObamaCare after the Massachusetts plan is an outright lie. I’ve scoured news article and blogs from 2009 to Feb. 2010 when all the debate for the ObamaCare bill had taken place, and NOWHERE do the the Dems refer to MA as a model. They are trying to re-write history for political expedience.

The tactic of falsely using “RomneyCare” as cover is a win-win-win situation for Obama:

  1. It cements in the minds of liberals that the Dems were truly trying to be bipartisan, and allows them to paint Republicans as partisan hacks since ObamaCare received not a single vote from Republicans.

  2. It gives Romney’s opponents on the right fodder to toss about. They merrily repeat the false claim in effort to build up a mantra against Romney.

  3. For Obama, it weakens what he may consider his most likely opponent for 2012.

The first mention from any Dem saying they patterned ObamaCare after the MA plan was after the bill already passed. If they had modeled it after MA Care wouldn’t they have at least conferred with Romney once? They didn’t. Not until they realized how disgusted the American people were with the bill did they try to pass along some of the blame to Mitt Romney. The fact that one bill is 70 pages and the other is 2700+ alone should put to rest any notion that they are equal plans. One is a state effort to fix a state problem, the other is a bloated monstrosity that is an unconstitutional over-reach of power.

Sorry, but this is completely off-point. Obama is saying that he shaped his health care bill in the image of what had been the Republican position on health care reform for a long time, dating back at least to 1993, when Senate Republicans endorsed a similar proposal. Romney's plan is the latest evidence of that similarity. Obama didn't say he patterned his plan specifically after Romney's, and it doesn't matter for Obama's purposes. the point is that regulate-mandate-subsidize was a respectable GOP position right up until 2009. Romney's plan is a state-level version of the Affordable Care Act, and the two plans were even designed by the same economist. Hand-waving about the different page lengths of the plan or the Constitution doesn't get around those facts.

Romney's problem is that he was caught up in his party's massive rightward lurch -- his position was almost completely uncontroversial in 2008, but it has become anathema in 2012 because the GOP has lost its mind. I genuinely wish Romney good luck in winning the party nomination, because he's at heart a sane man trying to lead an insane party.

Update: Rick Perry calls on Romney to repudiate his plan. This isn't going to end well for Romney.

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What's worse for Romney is that Obamacare is actually more conservative than Romneycare. Or anyway this would be worse for Romney if conservatives (A) paid attention to facts and (B) had any actual interest in the principles of conservatism. Since neither is true, the fact that Obamacare is in its details more faithful to conservative values than Romneycare is probably moot.

- rhubarbs

November 9, 2010 at 9:05am

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Probably right rhubs. I suspect that Romney was doomed as a contender for the GOP nomination from the time he put on the magic underpants.

- miceelf

November 9, 2010 at 10:01am

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Great point Rhubarbs. Catchy title - Romney Death Watch. Aside from Palin and Gingrich, there is no politician I dislike more, would like more to see fail than Mitt Romney, easily the most inauthentic man in politics today. His attempts to reinvent himself are both comical and disgusting. He emodies the worst traits of modern Republicanism - pandering to the base (in both senses of the word), faux populism (See - he's one of us! He's been driving the same old beat up car - to run errands at his New Hampshire lake house). And worst of all - breath taking, unparelled Chickhawkedness - Double Gitmo!. Not a minute of military service between him and his 5 strapping sons. His incoherent attempt in the Post to criticize Obama on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was pathetic - talk about counting MIRV's on bombers, revealing unfamiliarity on the subject.

- dubyadoubte

November 9, 2010 at 10:10am

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- Romney's Early Warning System is up and running even if he isn't. And now his competition knows exactly where to taunt him if they want to hear him squeal. If his opponents have any doubts whether this would be significant, he eliminated suspicion with his overreaction. It's pretty simple, when a batter takes off for the mound after a high and inside pitch every pitcher in the league takes note. How soon before we hear someone call it RomobamaCare?

- michaelg

November 9, 2010 at 11:16am

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As if Mitt doesn't have enough problems without Goodhair Perry on his tail.

- liberal reformer

November 9, 2010 at 2:29pm

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- As usual, an interesting lib ref. Before they finish all will have given each other problems they don't have now. This field needs to be obsessed with Mr. Obama but they'll have one of the loonier fields and half may not respect the rules of primary warfare. Even though they'll agree on most of the platform each one will have a few issues (Mitt's health care albatross) that will make them a target for the rest of the mob. And the thin skin of Mitt is ubiquitous, save Boss Hogg who has pride in his worth as a fixer. Primary '10 Inc. proved no one need worry about the general to be nominated so Primary '12 will be bloody. Who in this crowd can take a hit without running to FOX & what will they do when they're turned away?

- michaelg

November 9, 2010 at 3:30pm

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