POLITICO
By Reid Epstein
July 5, 2012
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78158.html#ixzz1zqPjUqoU
President Barack Obama came here Thursday to try to transform his health care law from a political liability into a comforting aspect of his middle class appeal.
Immigration and gay marriage weren't part of his pitch to the voters he's hoping will help him carry this critical swing state, nor was the divisive politics around the law. Pressing his record on rebuilding the auto industry, increasing jobs, grappling with home mortgages and reducing student loan rates, Obama kicked off the first bus tour of his reelection campaign and first campaign swing since last week's Supreme Courts ruling by framing his deeply controversial law as simply one of many middle-class programs he's pursued.
And Obama expanded his definition of the middle class to include the poor, doing so while borrowing some of Vice President Joe Biden's language about what it means to be part of the oft-targeted group.
"I want to say, by the way, that when I talk about middle class, I'm also talking about poor folks that are doing the right thing and trying to get to the middle class," Obama said to an announced crowd of about 1,000 in a park here. "The middle class is also an attitude. It's not just about income, it's about knowing what's important, and not measuring your success just based on your bank account. It's about your values and being responsible and looking after each other and giving back."
After making brief references to the high points of his care reforms, Obama here offered his most extensive recitation of the law of the day, devoting nearly two minutes to defending it.
"There's so much misinformation out there, and I just want to clear up a couple things," Obama said. "If you have health insurance, right now, here's what this bill means: It means that insurance companies can't drop you for no reason or when you need it most."
Obama touted the ability for children to stay on their parent's health insurance policies until turning 26, then again took aim at insurers.
"It means that they can't impose lifetime limits, insurance companies can't impose lifetime limits so that when you really need it, suddenly they say, 'We don't have anymore insurance for you.'" "It's a patients bill of rights for you if you have insurance and if you don't have health insurance, then it gives you a chance to buy into a pool so that you get the same deal as folks who are working at big companies do."
Earlier, in Maumee, the president folded his health care declaration between a touting of his administration's formally challenging Chinese import taxes and reminding the crowd he'd ended the war in Iraq and is transitioning out of Afghanistan.
But the fight over the law, he argued, was over.
"The law I passed is here to stay," he declared at the first stop of the six-city bus trip that will take him through northeastern Ohio and toward Pittsburgh.
As he did when he visited a conference of Latino elected officials a week after unveiling the immigration reforms, Obama came bearing gifts with hometown appeal. In this case, an announcement that he will formally challenge import taxes China levies on large U.S.-made vehicles, including sport utility vehicles like the Jeep Wrangler which is built in Toledo, nine miles from Maumee.
"Just this morning my administration took new action to hold China accountable," Obama said, though by then several speakers had told the crowd about the story, first reported in the Toledo Blade. "As long as we're competing on a fair playing field instead of an unfair playing field, we're going to do just fine. But we're going to make sure that competition is fair. That's what I believe, that's part of our mission for America."
Obama's bus trip comes at a potentially perilous time for the president. Friday brings another set of monthly jobs numbers, figures that don't figure to be much friendlier for Obama's reelection efforts than the last.
To that end, Obama is due to speak Friday morning in Poland, Ohio, and Friday afternoon in Pittsburgh before heading back to Washington, where he has White House bill-signings planned on student loan and transportation bills to distract from potential bad news.
Obama's new campaign spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, told reporters on Air Force One that the president will continue to aim for the middle-class sweet spot.
"Voters and the American people are impacted by what challenges they're facing every day," Psaki said. "So that is, do they have a job? Can they afford to send their kids to college? Can they afford access to health care? You'll hear the president talk about this today. There are many issues that impact the security of the middle class, and that's what families are worried about day to day, especially in the places we'll be visiting over the next two days."
The Obama campaign's linguistic shifting of health care from a signature achievement to part of a portfolio of middle-class accomplishments comes as he makes his first extended campaign foray in Ohio.
Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romneys camp sought to counter Obamas trip here by loading two top surrogates Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on its campaign bus and appearing at event sites before the president.
Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg ripped Obama for his stewardship of the economy and for presiding over an increase in the national debt. Romney has long accused Obama of breaking a promise to lower health care costs.
Obamacare raises health care costs on middle-class Americans, raises taxes on middle-class Americans, and kills jobs that middle-class Americans desperately need and deserve, Henneberg said. Its middle-class Americans who are suffering the consequences of President Obamas big-government takeover of health care. Thats why on Day One, Gov. Romney will work to repeal and replace it.
For the president, health care is a particularly tricky issue here. In November, Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved a largely ceremonial state constitutional amendment forbidding state lawmakers from enacting a state-level system like the one Mitt Romney put in place while governor of Massachusetts, though it does not prohibit the state from participating in the Affordable Care Act.
And a poll taken in May and June by the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati found 60 percent of Ohioans said they dont have enough information about the federal reforms to understand how it will affect them.
Obamas other chief achievements are also tough sells here. With Ohios Hispanic population one-fifth the national average, his immigration reform wont play as strong as it does elsewhere. Obamas support for gay marriage isnt a big winner in the traditionally Catholic, blue-collar industrial communities hes visiting on this trip.
Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, one of Obamas chief surrogates in the state, said the federal governments rescue of the auto industry will be more important for voters than health care.
I think the issues are breaking the presidents way in terms of the auto industry, Strickland said. I believe that it is possible that the health care issue could become a positive by election time. I think the more likely outcome is that it remains more in the neutral range of issues that will affect the election.
Until then, Obama has the task of selling reforms that wont be implemented until 2014, while he is exposed to negative attacks from Republicans carrying the simpler message of repeal.
Ohioans, like other Americans, oppose it because they dont know enough about it, said Cathy Levine, the executive director of the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio.
Thats because, Levine said, Obama and his administration have failed to explain the law. But its also the product of three years of failing to explain the law. State Rep. Nickie J. Antonio, a Democrat who introduced legislation to create a state health exchange under the Affordable Care Act, said even she is unfamiliar with everything the law would do.
I know that I am constantly learning more about what it means for the people that I represent, she said.
Antonio, who represents Lakewood, a Cleveland suburb, said it is incumbent upon Obamas supporters to explain the laws benefits to ward off the Republican repeal mantra, a far simpler message to sell.
Its all of our responsibility in terms of those of us who believe that we have a stake in the presidents campaign, she said. All of us who support the president and want to see him reelected need to be a part of that force of explainers out there.
They may not have time to do that before November.
Ohios Republican governor, John Kasich, warned during a conference call with Ohio reporters Tuesday that all the states accomplishments in the just-finished legislative session could be nullified if the Affordable Care Act is not repealed by the next Congress.
I have great concerns about the headwinds caused by the Supreme Court ruling, Kasich said. I respect the Supreme Court ruling, no doubt about it, but … we might see very continued anemic growth over the period of the next year or so. Theres so much uncertainty that we dont want to get in the position of popping champagne corks and thinking everything is right.
And Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who defected from the Romney camp to endorse rival Rick Santorum before the states primary, said there is no reason to suspect the states predominant view on health care has changed since last Novembers vote.
DeWine declined to say if he endorses the Santorum view, expressed before Wisconsins primary, that Romney was the worst candidate to challenge Obama on health care.
If there was a problem, this decision eliminates the problem because people are so focused on Obama, DeWine said. And so this identifies health care with him, and people dislike the mandate so much.
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