Coin: Democrats Press Health Care In Ads

Well, well, well. While I was writing yesterday's post, the Obama camp was delivering the second part of a one-two punch comprised of advertisements focused on health care. We saw the first one in my last post; now the Dems have aired another ad entitled "Coin."

Martina Stewart, an associate producer for CNN's Political Ticker blog, has a great resource addressing the divergent positions taken by the candidates. Her Political Ticker post made on October 5 not only give a synopsis of the commercial along with a video link, but also includes some great responses and rebuttals from each camp.

On Sunday, the [Obama] campaign also held a conference call about health care reform policy that featured Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who was the Kansas Insurance Commissioner prior to becoming governor, and the Pennsylvania and Ohio insurance commissioners. The call focused on criticizing Sen. McCain’s health care reform proposal.

The day before, the McCain campaign held a conference call of its own where it sought to refute the Obama campaign’s assertions about the McCain health care reform plan and, at a campaign event in Virginia, Obama called McCain’s plan “radical.”

The audiocasts of these two conference calls add a much needed additional dimension to the issues presented in the advertisement. Links to them are near the bottom of the Political Ticker post cited at the bottom of this entry.

The chaos of these recent months has included its own health care aspects in each of the major issues. In the wake of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, we saw firsthand, palpable proof of the importance of electronic medical records. As Wall Street melts down and the Dow plummets, the impact of health care costs on our economy is massive. During the Presidential race, it is once more rising to the surface.

We may see health care moving back towards its proper position as a centerpiece issue for the next President.

SOURCE: "Obama camp releases another health care ad" 10/05/08
photo courtesy of KevinDooley, used under its Creative Commons license