Farewell to a relatively good spirited campaign. Yesterday the Clinton campaign fired a direct shot across the bow in response to an Obama health care mailing that depicted her plan has forcing individuals to obtain health care.

Hillary’s health care plan forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can’t afford it. Is that the best we can do for families struggling with high health care costs?

Hillary’s health care plan forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can’t afford it… and you pay a penalty if you don’t.

The way Hillary Clinton’s health care plan covers everyone is to have the government force uninsured people to buy insurance, even if they can’t afford it.

“…forcing those who cannot afford health insurance to buy it through mandates…punishing those who don’t fall in line with fines.”
- The Daily Iowan, December 21, 2007

Punishing families who can’t afford health care to begin with just doesn’t make sense.

Barack Obama believes that it’s not that people don’t want health care, it’s that they can’t afford it.

Barack Obama believes Americans who don’t have health care coverage desperately want it; they just can’t afford to pay for it. That’s why the Obama plan covers every American by reducing costs more than Hillary Clinton’s, saving the typical family up to $2,500 per year.

Bill Clinton’s own Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, wrote, “I’ve compared the two plans in detail…But in my view Obama’s would insure more people, not fewer, than HRC’s.” - Robert Reich, December 3, 2007

The Obama Health Care Plan:

• Offers health care coverage for all Americans similar to that of members of Congress, and subsidies to help those who cannot afford it.
• Reduces insurance costs more than Hillary’s plan, including capping insurance company profits in places where they have taken advantage of people.
• Saves the typical family up to $2,500 per year.

Read the entire plan at BarackObama.com.
Barack Obama. Health care we can afford. Change we can believe in.

Here is Clinton’s response:

Three Thoughts:

First, I think that Hillary came off as way too authoritative and angry in that press conference. From a PR standpoint, I think she sounds pissed off rather than passionate.

Second, I’m not going to argue that the mailer isn’t negative toward Hillary Clinton’s health care plan- it is. I think both campaigns are trying to exploit very small policy differences to create the illusion of substantive difference. Both candidates agree 95% of the time on policy, leaving very little wiggle room for both to draw distinctions with one another. The result? Mailers like this where Obama attacks Hillary’s plan to force every person to get health care (under penalty of fine) and Hillary attacks Obama on “leaving out 15 million uninsured Americans” (because the government does not force health care.)

Honestly, it’s the same goal: universal health care.

Finally, political strategy is at play here. This mailing went out to people at the beginning of February. It’s ridiculous to assert that the Clinton campaign had no knowledge of this piece until now (despite Hillary saying she just found out when an person along a rope line gave it to her.) The Clinton camp is looking at the same poll numbers out Texas and Ohio that we are… they are aware that Obama is gaining traction in the two states where they’ve invested all their chips. Lets remember that the Clinton’s are not angelic when it comes to mailers either. They’re just as guilty of throwing around distorting mail pieces. Here is a less-than-known mailer that went out in early February (around the same time as the Obama health care piece):

Which presidential candidate will solve America’s toughest economic problems?

Only Hillary Clinton has the right solutions for America.

Hillary Clinton. A plan to cut taxes for the middle class. A comprehensive plan to end the housing crisis with a moratorium on foreclosures and a freeze in mortgage rates for at-risk homeowners. Redirect billions in oil company profits to alternative energy research to find solutions to our energy crisis and create 5 million new, good paying jobs.

Barack Obama. No plan to place a moratorium on home foreclosures. Voted for Dick Cheney’s energy bill that gives huge tax breaks to oil companies. And he wants to raise Social Security taxes by a trillion dollars.

Leadership Takes More than Talk.

In reality according to FactCheck.org:

• It says he “wants to raise Social Security taxes by a trillion dollars,” a big distortion. Obama has said a “good option” would be to apply Social Security payroll taxes to incomes over $97,500 a year, but that would only affect taxes paid by 6.5 percent of individuals and couples. And he hasn’t formally proposed such a move anyway.

• The Clinton mailer says Obama has “no plan” for a moratorium on foreclosures such as the one Clinton has proposed. That’s true, but Obama has his own plan for homeowner relief. The mailer leaves the impression that Obama has “no plan” at all, which is false.

• It says Obama “voted for Dick Cheney’s energy bill that gives huge tax breaks to oil companies,” another distortion. By the time Congress passed the 2005 energy bill, it raised taxes on the oil industry more than it decreased them and also contained billions for alternative fuels research and subsidies for energy-efficient buildings and vehicles.

All this is a microcosim of an ad war between the two. Moral of the story: never believe direct mailers from one candidate about another candidate’s record.

Full analysis of the Obama mailer against Clinton here.
Full analysis of the Clinton mailer against Obama here.