OfA, DNC ‘Call Out’ Steele in New Web Video


Organizing for America, the increasingly combative political operation of the White House, today unveiled a new web video targeting Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele, charging the Republican Party chief with “siding with Washington elites and insurance companies and playing political games to kill reform.”

The latest installment in OfA’s “call ‘em out” campaign—a call to arms of sorts for complacent allies of President Barack Obama to debunk Republican myths about heath care reform—accuses Steele of scare-mongering and orchestrating a misinformation campaign against the President’s efforts on health care.

“Michael Steele is willing to lie and play political games in order to kill reform that would help Americans of every political party — so we’re calling him out,” reads an email from OfA Executive Director Jen O’Malley announcing the video.

The Democrats’ new web campaign, however, is as blatantly wrong as it is overtly hostile.

Opening with a recent segment from White House-scorned FOX News on health care reform’s “obligation to older Americans,” Steele said, “Just look at the situation with our veterans when you have a manual out there telling our veterans, you know, stuff like are you really a value to your community. You know, encouraging them to commit suicide.” Promptly followed by a blaring, rubber-stamped chyron reading “FALSE,” OfA cites as Politifact.com as cover for their claim.

At issue is a Department of Veteran Affairs-funded pamphlet—dubbed the “death book” by the Wall Street Journal—which presented various advanced care scenarios to aging veterans, callously prompting readers to then decide if their life would be “not worth living.” Democratic strategists correctly note the “Your Life, Your Choices” document was first published in 1997 and promoted by the VA throughout President George W. Bush’s two terms in office. What they fail to mention, conveniently, is that the “manual” was suspended after a review by Bush administration officials – and only later revived in 2009 by the new Democratic administration.

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Obama campaign flooding legislators’ offices with supporters in effort to give appearance of public support for unpopular health overhaul


As ordinary citizens across the country continue to ratchet up their level of interest and activity in the legislative process, President Obama and his campaign arm, Organizing (formerly “Obama”) For America, are struggling to cope with the tufts of grass sprouting up in the midst of their carefully astroturfed national field.

Last week, in what may have been the first instance of an American government officially calling on one group of American citizens to protest against, “get in [the] faces” of, and shout down another group of their own countrymen, President Obama authorized his campaign arms, the DNC and Organizing for America, to call opponents of his health overhaul plan a “dangerous mob” and to encourage supporters to counter (violently, if necessary) reasonable demonstrations and to put a stop to their questioning of elected officials.

Obama followed this up by sending an email via OFA in which he declared the health care reform debate “the moment [his] movement was built for” and called on his remaining campaign supporters to attend “thousands of events” across the country to crowd civic-minded Americans out of public events and to create, through organized efforts, the appearance of actually-nonexistent support for his extremely unpopular health overhaul.

The White House also put out a request for its supporters to turn in any of their fellow citizens who voiced concerns with President Obama’s $1 trillion health care overhaul to the White House — even if those concerns were simply spoken in what the White House called “casual conversation.”

Today, in an additional effort to create the appearance that the proposal is far more popular than it is among the voting public, OFA director Mitch Stewart called on Obama supporters to flood their Representatives’ district offices in support of Obamacare.

The text of the email is below:

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