Enter
real-keeping, tweeting, “Impt to
learn right lessons from #FL13:
we got our collective shit together, campaign + outside did operations/media. This race is not test
case vs Obamacare. Just thinking
it was is magical thinking that
will lead to laziness and shortcuts to running good operations.”
If this “magical thinking”
could lead the GOP down some
blind alleys in the midterms,
then by the same token any fretting about the issue is a waste
of energy for Democrats. After
all, what’s to be done now about
having cast a vote for the Affordable Care Act? Nothing, that’s
what. Right now, the policy’s
success or failure depends heavily on getting the right mix of
people enrolled on the healthcare
exchanges. Either it does and the
law succeeds, or it doesn’t and
the plan collapses.
Even if by some stroke of luck
Obamacare is running perfectly
come October and a majority of
voters heartily approve of it, it
may not make any difference. The
fundamentals of the coming election just surpass any clever Beltway messaging. When I consider
the headwinds Democrats are
facing, I think about things like
LOOKING FORWARD
IN ANGST
HUFFINGTON
03.16-23.14
the historical tendency of midterm elections to run against the
party holding the White House,
the Democrats’ typical inability
to achieve high turnout in midterms, the way that Democratic
voters are massed together in a
few urban districts, and then I
think, “Wow, isn’t that enough?”
To be honest, I’m not even sure
Obamacare is going to rate as a
factor. I’m sorry I can’t co-sign
What’s to be done now
about having cast a vote for the
Affordable Care Act? Nothing,
that’s what. Right now, the
policy’s success or failure
depends heavily on getting the
right mix of people enrolled.”
any clever mysticism for you today, but that’s me — being all
insistent that electoral fundamentals matter. And if Florida’s
election demonstrates anything,
it’s that these fundamentals are
grim indeed for Democrats, and
that issues like turnout and the
bunkering of voters in a limited
number of districts will persist
long after the shouting
over Obamacare subsidies.