Democrats run from Obamacare during 2012 election cycle

 When Barack Obama took to the stage at the DNC and delivered what most political pundits deemed a flat, failure of a speech it was quite interesting to note that Barack Obama didn’t even mention Obamacare. This is what the Democrats consider to be his signature legislation, his crowning achievement, because he succeeded where the immortal Bill Clinton failed, and yet he didn’t think it was even worthy of a mention.

  In fact–with the exception of Boston Mayor Tom Menino, who mentioned Romneycare only to attack Mitt Romney–healthcare reform wasn’t really mentioned during the Democrat convention. This point can’t be emphasized enough; this was the legislation Barack Obama was supposed to be most proud of, to quote Joe Biden it was a big fucking deal, and yet nary a word about it during the convention.

  Gone was the arrogance of the left, or course you remember Nancy Pelosi taunting the protesters by walking through the crowd with an over-sized gavel, that was nowhere to be seen as the Democrats decided to forget about their roles in passing this legislation. Democrats no longer consider Obamacare a big fucking deal, they see it as an albatross around their necks–a liability the Democrats would rather pretend didn’t exist than extol its virtues.

  Of course we know the reason why: while pushing for Obamacare under the premise that there was a healthcare crisis in America, Barack Obama ignored the issue which was number one with the American people–the economy–and the Democrats relied on parlor tricks, gimmicks, and bribes to push through the Congress a bill that a majority of Americans opposed.

  One of the first major political fatalities of Obamacare was Ben Nelson, who provided the deciding vote in the Senate in favor of Obamacare after he received a bribe for his state in return for his vote. (It is of note that Ben Nelson was concerned Obamacare would make federal funding of abortion part of healthcare reform, and we now know that is part of the Democrat party platform.) This hurt him so badly that he knew he couldn’t win reelection and he announced his retirement at the end of his term.

 And now the Democrat who hopes to replace him, former Nebraska governor and senator Bob Kerrey, is also running from the healthcare reform legislation. In fact he had some tough words about the individual mandate:

Democratic Senate candidate Bob Kerrey said Thursday that he hates the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act and that his own businesses might drop employee insurance and pay the federal fine for doing so if the mandate goes into effect in 2014.

Kerrey said wealthy Americans pay their fair share in taxes. And he said President Barack Obama made a big mistake by not following the recommendations of his own bipartisan budget deficit commission.

He went beyond just a general opposition to ObamaCare, however. He was very specific, and knowledgable, about one of the law’s chief failings:

“I hate the employer mandate,” Kerrey said. “I think it’s going to have a counterproductive impact. We don’t have any (insured employee) that costs us less than $7,000 (a year), and the fine’s $2,000. We’ll dump ’em off. We won’t call it dumping, we’ll say … ‘Go get it from the exchange.’”

He said the employer mandate “will accelerate an already breaking-down employer-based system.” That portion of the law should be repealed, he said.

  No matter how you slice it Obamacare is a losing issue and the Democrats know it so they are avoiding the subject like the plague. I guess Democrats don’t see Obamacare as a BFD anymore, they see it more like a POS–at least while they are trying to win the presidency and maintain a majority in the Senate.