Barack Obama won’t campaign for Democrats who vote “no” on healthcare reform

  As if Democrats who are either on the fence on healthcare reform or are a definite “no” vote on healthcare reform needed any more incentive to vote against the bill, they got it today anyway. Barack Obama is threatening– or given his track record, promising– that he will not campaign for any Democrat who votes no on healthcare reform.

  Considering the fact that every candidate that the president has campaigned for in recent months has lost, this should be enough incentive for any undecided Democrat to vote against this bill. His absence from their campaign would probably be a good thing at this point, it would allow the candidate to show the people that they voted against the president and with the people on an issue that the vast majority of the people disagree with the president on.

  The only people Barack Obama’s snub would have any positive effect on (positive  in the president’s eyes) would be the far left in the party and where are they going to go? They will either have to vote for the candidate or stay home. Even so, the votes that might be won in the more moderate circles by opposing Obamacare would possibly be enough to re-elect the candidate that Barack Obama didn’t campaign for.

   And if the moderate votes end up voting Republican, what has the president gained by this? Nothing, other than proving that he is so stubborn that he cost his party seats based on one issue, while that stubbornness may have stopped any chance he had of pushing forward his remaining domestic agenda by electing the opposition party.

  Unless the undecided Democrats succumb to the president’s threat/promise, I don’t see any upside to this and I really don’t think the undecided Democrats are going to vote “yes” on healthcare reform just on this threat/promise alone.