Using Your Opponents' Momentum Against Them

Earlier today I contemplated where Team Obama's "boots on the ground" were in the health care town halls for Democrats. Sam Stein over at HuffPo reports that the Democrats instead may be giving the anti-health care reform crazies the rope they need to hang themselves with.

But sources tell Huffington Post that Tuesday's video is the harbinger of a much larger effort to change the tide on health care reform.

As detailed by White House officials and aides at allied groups, the goal going into the August recess is not to be intimidated by the angry protesters laying siege to town hall meetings or the information pushed by unfriendly websites, but rather to turn that anger and material into a rallying point for proponents of reform.

"Health insurance reform is an issue that lends itself to fear-mongering and distortion, so when we see those tactics, we are going to respond to them," Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, explained via email to the Huffington Post. "The President has been very clear that he wants to build on and strengthen the health care system we have, bring security and stability to people who have insurance today and access to quality affordable care to those who don't. Those who resist reform are standing up for a status quo that works great for the insurance industry, but not so well for the American people."

Another Democratic operative who is helping to spearhead the push was more succinct: "They [the anti-Obama crowds] don't care about health care. They care about destroying the president."

The obvious comparison -- one DNC aides are actively pushing -- is to the crowds that came to define rallies for Sen. John McCain, (R-Arizona) and Sarah Palin during the late stages of the 2008 presidential campaign. Those audiences, which openly questioned Obama's patriotism and citizenship, may have riled up the conservative base. But they also turned off moderate voters.

Which actually makes a lot of sense. They're simply waiting for the teabaggers to cross the line, and to get it on tape. As Steve Benen points out, they may have already lost that battle.

Consider the instantly-infamous video taken over the weekend, when right-wing activists -- one carrying a sign with Nazi "SS" lettering -- tried to intimidate Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D) at an event in Texas. Who's the sympathetic figure in that video? If the typical American watches the clip, who would he/she want to associate with?

For several weeks, Democratic officials have hoped the public would come to see opponents of health care reform as crazy. Now that the August fights are underway, the right is helping the Democratic message ... by acting crazy.

It's an interesting plan. Let them beat up themselves. We've already seen the lengths that these people will go to in the Obama Derangement Sydrome department. Let them show up on YouTube and the local news with their teabagger signs calling Obama a fascist and a Nazi and other horrible things. If people see their own neighbors doing this, maybe they'll finally understand just how out of control this is.

It's a cunning plan, but a potentially dangerous one.