My must read of the day is "Defend 'Obamacare' Unabashedly, Some Democrats Say," on ABC News:
Republicans practically dare Democrats to embrace "Obamacare," the GOP's favorite target in most congressional campaigns. Yet pro-Democratic activists in Alaska are doing just that, and a number of strategists elsewhere hope it will spread. […]
Republicans already were pushing their luck by vowing to "repeal and replace" the health care law without having a viable replacement in mind, said Thomas Mills, a Democratic consultant and blogger in North Carolina. Now, he said, Democrats have even more reasons to rise from their defensive crouch on this topic.
"Democrats need to start making the case for Obamacare," Mills said. "They all voted for it, they all own it, so they can't get away from it. So they'd better start defending it."
Not having an alternate is a problem for Republicans, most people agree on that.
Republican leadership has outlined vague details of an alternate they would support. Individuals like Reps. Tom Price (R., Ga.) and Steve Scalise (R., La.) have proposed plans, but leadership has not backed any of them.
In some regards Mills is right, but the lack of a "viable replacement" does not make this law any easier to defend.
If Democrats highlight the good, they will draw more attention to the law as a whole. The broader impact of it is what’s so difficult to defend.
Republicans and conservatives didn’t say the law would benefit absolutely no one; they said it would pick winners and losers and there would be more losers than winners. Highlighting a handful of positive stories doesn’t challenge that narrative.
This is a vast law and Republicans have numerous flaws they can point to: The law has been unpopular since the day it was passed. The CBO may have lowered their prediction of the cost over the next decade (because premiums were lower than they predicted), but overstating a preliminary estimate doesn’t mean much—it was always just an educated guess—and premiums are still up. Millions of people lost their insurance despite repeated promises to the contrary. And many have seen their networks shrink—again, despite promises to the contrary.
All of that makes for a stronger position to hold. Democrats will largely be focusing on minor details, and very specific stories, when they tout the success of the law—I’m not sure that’s much better than trying to ignoring it.