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You are here: Home / Health Care / White House Failed to Sell Health Care Law

White House Failed to Sell Health Care Law

June 30, 2012 at 9:56 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 1 Comment

The New York Times reports Democrats are frustrated that the White House which vowed a public relations blitz selling the health care law’s virtues “never fully followed through.”

Said one top White House adviser: “Unfortunately, we never had a really effective strategy around communicating to the public the benefits and the rationale behind health care reform. We never had a spokesperson, and the public never really understood what we were doing.”

“That failure still baffles supporters… given the significance of health care to Mr. Obama’s legacy. Some see it as a result of the president’s own instinctive diffidence or the natural desire to move to the next challenge. Others note the complexity of the act itself, or criticize the president’s advisers for not being more assertive.”

“But there was also calculation on the part of White House officials who concluded that the public was fatigued with the subject and more concerned about jobs.”

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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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