Even though tonight is Obama's big speech, it is time for progressives to ramp up another media narrative on John McCain. Check out his health care plan:
A health care policy advisor for the McCain campaign told a newspaper reporter that nobody in the United States is technically uninsured, because everyone has access to hospital emergency rooms.
"So I have a solution [to the health care crisis]. And it will cost not one thin dime," John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, told the Dallas Morning News in an interview published Thursday.
"The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American - even illegal aliens - as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care. So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."
It's time for the Obama campaign to start handing out little cards that read "The McCain health care plan: go to the emergency room." Or something similar.
This could be an absolutely devastating attack, especially when coupled with McCain's comment on not knowing how many homes he owns, and with Phil Gramm's comment on American being a "nation of whinders." Cumulatively, it paints a picture of McCain just being a rich a**hole who doesn't care about your economic problems.
The timing of the gaffe isn't great, but it is something we can nail McCain on next week. Press releases, ads, surrogates on TV, references in stump speeches: we have to hit McCain with the whole nine yards on this one. It should be really, really damaging.
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