My must read of the day is "On Health Act, Democrats Run to Mend What G.O.P. Aims to End," in the New York Times:
As Democrats approach the 2014 midterm elections, they are grappling with an awkward reality: Their president’s health care law — passed almost entirely by Democrats — remains a political liability in many states, threatening their ability to hold on to seats in the Senate and the House.
As a result, party leaders have decided on an aggressive new strategy to address the widespread unease with the health care law, urging Democratic candidates to talk openly about the law’s problems while also offering their own prescriptions to fix them. […]
The lesson of 2010 is not lost on Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, who is considered one of this cycle’s most vulnerable incumbents.
In her first television spot, she looks directly into the camera and addresses the botched rollout of the health care law: "I’m fixing it, and that’s what my bill does, and I’ve urged the president to fix it," she says, referring to legislation she sponsored that would allow individuals to keep their insurance plans even if the plans did not meet the minimum requirements of the health law.
The implication of these ads seems to be, "We’ll fix it, because no one else will."
But doesn’t this undermine the president’s numerous delays, executive actions, and administrative "patches"? They are all intended to fix problems and smooth out implementation of the law. We are already seeing the Democrats’ campaign promise in action. The law isn’t being repealed, but so many changes have been made that it’s a much different law than what we started with.
The president did exactly what Landrieu’s legislation calls for. He issued an executive order allowing insurers to bring back the canceled plans. That fix was partial fluff, because many insurance companies could not, and did not, bring back their plans.
Unless they run on the Republican "repeal and replace" strategy, Democrats are essentially saying, "We support doing what we’re doing now." How is that a winning strategy?