The National Republican Senatorial Committee is out with this new
ad about President Obama backing off his promise to let the
public read a bill online for five days. It's a well put together
ad that highlights the lack of transparency on the Democrats'
part, while tapping into the broader theme that Obama's actions
as president are not consistent with his lofty campaign rhetoric.
So while it makes perfect sense to hit Democrats on an issue that
has strong non-ideological public support, there's also a danger
of playing this up too much in the health care debate
specifically. The problem is that it would be very easy for
Demcorats to give in to allow the posting of the bill online for
72 hours -- and look like they're being conciliatory -- while
still passing a really awful health care bill. A comparison I'd
make is to the stimulus debate, when Republicans focused on the
money going into pork barrel projects rather than focus their
fire on the philosophy behind the stimulus itself. So, in the
end, Democrats just stripped out a few egregious examples of
government waste, deprived Republicans of those easy targets, and
convinced the public that Republicans were "The Party of No." So,
by all means, this is an issue worth raising, but it should not
overwhelm arguments much more central to the health care debate.
About the Author
Philip Klein is The American Spectator's Washington correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/Philipaklein
