White House Admits They Didn't Put Enough Lipstick on the Health Care Pig

The Washington Examiner's Julie Mason reports the White House now admits to problems with their health care strategy. Gee d'ya think?

With a widely unpopular health care package entering the final throes of negotiation in Congress, a key White House official acknowledged the sales pitch has been mishandled.

"We have to do a better job of explaining to the American people the principle things they will get out of this," Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told MSNBC. "The message is not getting through."

What things would those be I wonder. There are a few reasons they aren't able to formulate an effective sales pitch, the first being the product. The mandate to buy health insurance, higher taxes and a plan that will surely drive the cost of health insurance up in the process are just a few that spring to mind as tough sells. Still, politicians put lipstick on pigs all the time though they'd need an awful lot of lipstick for this sow.

Perhaps a larger problem the Democrats seem to have overlooked is the secrecy. It's tough to get the message out when the whole deal is being cooked up behind closed doors, written with invisible ink and then voted on in the middle of the night.  In other words, it's the transparency stupid.

The White House prefers a different explanation, however:

From the beginning, President Obama embraced a strategy of encouraging congressional buy-in of his top legislative priority by allowing lawmakers to craft their own health care bill. ...

The president in recent days has significantly stepped up his involvement in crafting a final version of the bill, including supporting a decision by Democratic leaders to skip an official conference committee reconciliation in order to work it out in private.

Oh so it wasn't the secrecy and midnight votes after all.  Better to blame the absence of Obama's skillful legislative input.  Well, I stand corrected then.  The White House has a few more rationalizations up it's sleeve such as outrage from the unions and the minor fact that liberals hate the mandate and moderates like Arnold Schwarzenegger have dropped their support.  No one likes it, but that has nothing to do with back room deals, bribes or the hefty price tag, they just didn't put enough lipstick on the pig.  I hope they have lots of lipstick on hand, they're going to need it.