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 The White House is deploying Vice President Joe Biden and Cabinet
members across the country, drawing attention to improvements in the
still sluggish economic recovery and detailing the costs of last
month's partial government shutdown.
On Tuesday, Obama will address the economy during a visit to the
DreamWorks film studios in Glendale, Calif., and next month he plans
to host a summit of college presidents and business leaders to push
for more college access for disadvantaged students.
The offensive comes as Republicans plan a continuing assault on the
health care law by building an anecdote-based indictment of the
Affordable Care Act as it goes through its critical enrollment
period.
To buttress its case, the White House on Friday was giving
congressional Democrats a polling memo prepared by Obama pollster
Joel Benenson that argued that despite weeks of headlines devoted to
the botched health care website, to NSA spying activities and
Syria's chemical weapons, the top priority with voters remains the
economy.
The White House message to Democrats is to focus on what they
perceive as a key Republican vulnerability.
"The shutdown helped to cement a view of Republicans we have seen
gathering pace throughout the year: That they are so focused on
undermining the president they are risking our economic progress to
make him look bad," Benenson's memo says.
Still, public opinion polls by several large news organizations show
that Obama's standing with the public has also suffered,
particularly in the midst of the health care enrollment slowdown and
his unfulfilled pledge that all Americans covered by insurance could
keep their policies if they liked them.
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Obama's handling of the economy also polls poorly, a likely factor
in the White House's efforts to raise the economy's profile and
press for greater access to college for disadvantaged young people
and to promote its support for an increase in the minimum wage.
Even in promoting the health care law, the White House this week
drew attention to what it said were its economic benefits, pointing
to data that show health care costs are rising at slower rates.
The White House is trying to reassure Democrats that it remains
focused on resolving the problems with the health care law.
But it's urging them to turn their attention to issues important to
families, like jobs, education and wages, "and not getting caught up
in inside-the-beltway political dramas that have little bearing on
their immediate wellbeing," Benenson's memo says.
Republicans, meanwhile, have developed their own "playbook," that
calls on lawmakers to find anecdotes that illustrate problems with
the health care law and to use social media, videos and flyers to
distribute them to voters.
The 13-page memo devised by the House Republican leadership contains
talking points, a fact sheet and examples of messaging designed to
build opposition to the health care law.
[Associated
Press; JIM KUHNHENN]
Copyright 2013 The Associated
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