In my opinion, President Obama's press conference today concerning the healthcare plan was about nothing more than image and momentum. In the past few weeks, the press has bashed the healthcare roll-out more than a drunken baseball player with a baseball bat on a pinata at a kid's birthday party. In light of news that some people have lost insurance due to the higher standards set by the ACA (Affordable Care Act), Republicans in Congress have seen it as a golden opportunity and set forth to pass a bill in the House which would allow such individuals to keep their old insurance plans. As that was gaining momentum among both parties in Congress, the president decided to step forward and beat them to the push, in an attempt to tell the people he truly cares about their health and well-being, to showcase he's willing to compromise, and that he's willing to fix any flaws in the bill for the betterment of this country. Not only that, but he was attempting to prevent the Republican Party from garnering much momentum with their push for a similar bill. As I see it, that's all this was - about image and momentum. The fact of the matter is, like with what Republicans were proposing in the House, the idea brought forth by President Obama today isn't going to happen. Insurance companies didn't drop customers because President Obama instructed them to do so. They've attempted to paint the president as the bad guy in all of this, and were dropping these customers due to the higher standard of insurance they'd be required to provide their customers via the ACA. With his speech today, the president attempted to push back and show the American people it's the insurance companies whom are ultimately dropping customers, and due to these companies already locked and ready for the ACA come early next year, they're not likely going to alter any plans back to the way they were prior to the ACA. Congress and President Obama will definitely need to think of another way to "fix" the problem.
This is all political posturing 101. Congressional Republicans couldn't have believed that insurance companies would have gone along with their idea to fix Obamacare by allowing customers to go back to their former plans. They're just trying to improve their image among the American people, especially with mid-term elections just a year away. Since some Congressional Democrats started echoing the Republicans' concerns about the matter, the president decided to step forward and go about the matter first-hand, knowing full well it wasn't going to result in anything, that it may save he and Congress some time to actually try and fix the problem, and trying to stabilize or reverse any momentum the GOP may have gained due to this whole situation. It'll be interesting to see what the next moves of Congresspeople on both sides are after today's press conference.
One last thing I'd like to mention about the press conference was a quote by the president which is getting bashed by the media.
He said, "The things that go right, you guys aren't going to write about."
No, many members of the press were none too pleased with that remark. However, while I don't think the president was accurate about all members of the media, of course, I do think he was likely accurate about a majority of them.
Let's face it - the media tends to love negativity, because studies show that it leads to higher ratings. Ever watch the local news? What do the lead stories consistently deal with? Violence, crises, bad weather, and the like. Rarely will you ever sit down to watch the 7 pm news and right off the bat hear an anchor say, "My, wasn't it a glorious day out today? It was beautiful. I wish every day could be this lovely." No, the lead story will sound more like this - "Another shooting on 7th and Harrison tonight. One is dead and two more are in critical condition. The suspect has yet to be found, but is said to be driving a white pick-up truck."
The press also tends to like to play on trends until people are sick of hearing about a particular story. It's much like hit songs on the radio. Radio stations will play a new popular song once an hour for weeks on end until the song begins to lose some of its luster and callers start complaining about it. The news media is often times similar in that regard. Remember the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky story? George W. Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and WMDs or lack there of)? Now we have that same sort of scenario with President Obama and his healthcare plan, and the media won't stop obsessing with this story until the next big one comes along, and they'll flock to that like women did to Fonzie.
Unfortunately, positive stories just don't sell like negative ones do, because they don't prompt fear, anger, or even hatred. What magazines are people more inclined to reach for - the one that reads, "The Happiest Celebrity Couple in the World" or the one which says, "Is X (celebrity) having an affair with Y (celebrity)?" If you answered the former, you're a rare bird.
It probably would have been wise for President Obama to not have uttered his quote publicly, because he had to know it'd only further infuriate the media. However, for the most part, I think he's right.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/obama-media-health-care-press-conference_n_4275571.html
This is all political posturing 101. Congressional Republicans couldn't have believed that insurance companies would have gone along with their idea to fix Obamacare by allowing customers to go back to their former plans. They're just trying to improve their image among the American people, especially with mid-term elections just a year away. Since some Congressional Democrats started echoing the Republicans' concerns about the matter, the president decided to step forward and go about the matter first-hand, knowing full well it wasn't going to result in anything, that it may save he and Congress some time to actually try and fix the problem, and trying to stabilize or reverse any momentum the GOP may have gained due to this whole situation. It'll be interesting to see what the next moves of Congresspeople on both sides are after today's press conference.
One last thing I'd like to mention about the press conference was a quote by the president which is getting bashed by the media.
He said, "The things that go right, you guys aren't going to write about."
No, many members of the press were none too pleased with that remark. However, while I don't think the president was accurate about all members of the media, of course, I do think he was likely accurate about a majority of them.
Let's face it - the media tends to love negativity, because studies show that it leads to higher ratings. Ever watch the local news? What do the lead stories consistently deal with? Violence, crises, bad weather, and the like. Rarely will you ever sit down to watch the 7 pm news and right off the bat hear an anchor say, "My, wasn't it a glorious day out today? It was beautiful. I wish every day could be this lovely." No, the lead story will sound more like this - "Another shooting on 7th and Harrison tonight. One is dead and two more are in critical condition. The suspect has yet to be found, but is said to be driving a white pick-up truck."
The press also tends to like to play on trends until people are sick of hearing about a particular story. It's much like hit songs on the radio. Radio stations will play a new popular song once an hour for weeks on end until the song begins to lose some of its luster and callers start complaining about it. The news media is often times similar in that regard. Remember the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky story? George W. Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and WMDs or lack there of)? Now we have that same sort of scenario with President Obama and his healthcare plan, and the media won't stop obsessing with this story until the next big one comes along, and they'll flock to that like women did to Fonzie.
Unfortunately, positive stories just don't sell like negative ones do, because they don't prompt fear, anger, or even hatred. What magazines are people more inclined to reach for - the one that reads, "The Happiest Celebrity Couple in the World" or the one which says, "Is X (celebrity) having an affair with Y (celebrity)?" If you answered the former, you're a rare bird.
It probably would have been wise for President Obama to not have uttered his quote publicly, because he had to know it'd only further infuriate the media. However, for the most part, I think he's right.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/obama-media-health-care-press-conference_n_4275571.html
Comments
Post a Comment