September 7, 2012
The DNC in One Picture: “Obamacare”
If the Administration has had trouble framing the argument on any of a number of issues, the convention provided the opportunity, some planned, some unplanned, to boil the politics down to one picture … aiming for the heart or the gut rather than just the head.
Speaking of heart, this is Zoey Lihn, a girl with heart disease who will likely die without the health care law and the extended coverage it mandates. The still is from a video that stopped the convention in its tracks on Tuesday night. She also appeared on stage with her family (video/transcript) immediately after as her mother told her story.
There are 2-3 other hospital snapshots at the beginning of the video that are heart wrenching, but not that show Zoey this alive and connected to mom. (You might remember how far the far right took the brain dead Terri Schiavo with just a single, similar picture.)
If the photo packs a punch, it’s just as powerfully hits on how the administration has come up short in framing the debate, and now, defending the law itself, in more visceral terms.
…And it’s not called “Obamacare,” by the way, it’s the “Affordable Care Act.” Of course, the Democrats would likely have gotten much needed mileage by coming up with a vivid and proactive name for original bill. Naming it after Ted Kennedy, for example, would have at least required the opposition to besmirch the Kennedy legacy every time it was brought up.
