Clinton adviser links Obama mailer to Nazi march; campaign disavows analogy

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN/AP: February 1, 2008
Clinton adviser links Obama mailer to Nazi march

NEW YORK (AP) — Advisers to Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton Friday complained vehemently about an Obama campaign mailer that criticizes Clinton's health plan, with one adviser likening the mailer to "Nazis marching through Skokie, Illinois." Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson disavowed the analogy leveled by Len Nichols, a health policy expert at the New America Foundation who has consulted with Clinton and other candidates on their proposals. But the remark still reflected the emotional dispute over how best to achieve universal health care, a key concern of many Democratic primary voters.

The Obama mailer, which the Clinton campaign traced to mailboxes in North Dakota and Alaska, shows a young couple sitting at a table, appearing to puzzle over a stack of bills. "Hillary's plan forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can't afford it," the headline reads.

On a conference call with reporters, Clinton advisers complained the image and the message closely resembled the $100 million "Harry and Louise" TV ad campaign waged by the insurance industry in 1994 to kill the former first lady's effort to reshape the health care system. In those ads, a middle class couple sat at a table worrying about the Clinton plan's complexities and wondering if they might lose the right to choose their own doctors.

Clinton campaign policy director Neera Tanden said the mailer falsely suggests that the New York senator's plan wouldn't bring down costs. She noted that Clinton would offer tax subsidies to help pay for insurance and would seek other cost controls before enforcing a mandate to buy coverage. Obama, Tanden said, "betrays the cause of universal health care. For a potential Democratic nominee to be attacking universal care is quite stunning."

Nichols of the New America Foundation went farther. "I am personally outraged at the picture used in this mailing," Nichols, a supporter of the so-called universal mandate said. "It is as outrageous as having Nazis march through Skokie, Illinois." In late 1970s, the American Nazi party won a court battle over the right to march through the predominantly Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie, home to many Holocaust survivors. Despite their victory, the white supremacists decided to hold their demonstration in a Chicago park instead....

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/01/clinton-adviser-links-obama-mailer-to-nazi-march/

[dailykoff]

1. This would be funny, if it wasn't so pathetic.

How low will they go? Whenever they hit bottom, they always find a way to sink lower.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. There is no "they" here, just a "he"

There have been allegations in the past that one or another campaign camp has attempted to exploit racial, or gender, or age divisions in America. The argument always used is "this is not an isolated instance of this type subject matter being injected into the contest".

Well this time it IS an isolated instance, or do you claim to have detected a pattern of Hitler baiting by one campaign or another?

Meanwhile count me among those who find it repulsive to attempt to piggy back off of the imagery that the Right Wing and Insurance companies used to destroy the last attempt at Universal Health Care.

[dailykoff]

4. "They" are the Clintons,

and comparing a freaking health plan to a Nazi march is beyond pathetic. But go ahead and assure yourself that it's all just another big misunderstanding.

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. "The Clintons" did NOT do that.

Neither did the Clinton campaign. What the Clinton campaign did was to reject that analogy. I would not showcase an eagerness to make false accusatons.

And of course the Nazi reference was to a specific incident where Nazi's marched through a Jewish neighborhoos, and was meant to convey "waving a red blag in front of a Bull" - there was no comparison of a health plan to nazi's. Regardless, it seems that one health care advocate got royally pissed at that ad ans "saw red" as they say and lost it. His specific comment was dumb, not from the Clinton campaign, and disavowed.

[dailykoff]

6. Oh no, the Clintons would NEVER say that.

They got one of their stooges to say it. Exploiting racism didn't work, anti-semitism won't either, and I don't want to give the jackals any ideas about what to try after that. But stoop they will.

[Cameron27]

2. Nichols isn't listed as a Clinton advisor

anywhere in that article.

"Len Nichols, a health policy expert at the New America Foundation who has consulted with Clinton and other candidates on their proposals."

I'm disgusted that Obama dug up an old RW ad to use against Clinton's healthcare plan, that's just nasty politics. Further, I think by using that ad, he's poisoning the well for any future single payer plans that may have to rely on mandates.