At the beginning of the year, it was a clear Republican campaign strategy for the midterms: Attack Democrats for their support of Obamacare, and promise to repeal the law. But while the GOP is still gleefully pointing fingers at President Barack Obama – and is clearly delighted by his repeated assertion that his legacy is on the midterm ballot – the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act has not proved to be the club Republicans first imagined. Trashing the president's signature legislative achievement is one thing; telling millions of Americans that you might want to take away their new health insurance is far trickier. Now, with less than two weeks to go before the Nov. 4 elections, the Obamacare attacks are back, according to new campaign ad spending data. Underscoring the renewed push, Republican strategist and super-PAC maven Karl Rove's Thursday column in the
Wall Street Journal argued that the law remains a Democratic liability. "Democrats created ObamaCare, passed it, own it, and will suffer because of it," Rove wrote. Public surveys suggest that there is both an opening and a drawback to the Republican strategy. A
Gallup Poll in early October found deep partisan divisions on Obamacare, with 80 percent of Republicans saying the law will make health care worse in the long run and 66 percent of Democrats saying it will make the system better. Independents were divided, with 42 percent predicting worse results, 32 percent predicting things would get better and 20 percent saying it would make no difference. Meanwhile, a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll out this week says voters still don't like the law, but consider it a second-tier issue. They would rather improve the law than repeal it, and think congressional candidates should just move on. Republicans aren't finding making the case to dispose of the law quite so easy. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senate candidates Thom Tillis in North Carolina and Scott Brown in New Hampshire, Governor John Kasich of Ohio, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie all have found themselves juggling the rhetorical challenge in the closing weeks of the election. "They're being very careful about saying something they might be held accountable for later on," Iowa-based pollster J. Ann Selzer said of the Republican approach. "They're banking on the unpopularity, specifically, of Barack Obama. I think that's the strategy. They are opposing it in principle but they're very shy about attacking individual elements of it, because they know how this works." If you want an example, look to Christie. This week, while speaking at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event in Washington, the New Jersey governor, who is not up for re-election this year but is chairman of the Republican Governors Association and a possible 2016 presidential candidate, said that Obamacare is "a fiction. It doesn't work and it should be repealed."
"However, what are we going to be replacing it with?" he added. "As Republicans, we have to come out and say exactly what we're for – and I think there will be plenty of time for that after these elections."
McConnell, who stands to control the Senate if his party picks up six seats, was asked in an Oct. 13 debate whether Obamacare and Kynect, Kentucky's health benefit exchange for signing up for a plan under the new law, have been "a boon or bane" for most Kentuckians. He sought to separate the two, saying that while "in my view the best interest of the country would be achieved by pulling out Obamacare, root and branch," keeping Kynect and and Medicaid expansion are state decisions and his state has decided to go that route. Pressed about whether he favors keeping Kynect, McConnell said, "That's fine" and "I think it's fine to have a website."
