The Reality Check

Today President Obama launched a new White House website called Reality Check. No, it is not connected to the Reality Check blog, but it does try to clear up misinformation that has gone out about the new Health Care Reform bill.

The whole Health Care Reform issue is probably one of the worst handled political issues in recent Presidential history. No one really knows what's in the bill and that has given opportunity for everyone and anyone to make up the details that are in it. And the main responsibility for that falls on the Obama Administration. They have failed to effectively communicate what is actually in the bill. Besides constantly stating that the Health Care Reform bill would provide health insurance to the currently 40 million uninsured, they have failed big time on how it would effect the rest of the 250 or so million people. And in that big communication gap has come all kinds of facts, both accurate and flat out wrong, to enter into the debate regarding the Heath Care Reform bill.

Again, this is President Obama and his Administration's fault. They failed to have an effective message campaign. President Obama is now on the defensive. Because he failed to tell us what was in the Health Care Reform bill, now he has to constantly tell us what is NOT in the bill in response to the misinformation out there. And it's getting worse. At every turn, he is on the defensive and not on the offensive.

This is mostly due to the fact that President Obama tried to sneak this bill through Congress like he did on the other previous bills. He failed to construct a solid message that would speak to all Americans, not just the uninsured, and he failed to build a solid consensus among even the Democrats in Congress before moving forward with this bill. Now he's trying to talk his way through it through town hall meetings, but that's back firing too.

The cold hard reality check for the Obama Administration is that most people aren't going to take the time and energy to look at the entire bill and come up with their own opinions. They will be swayed based on how compelling the experts and political leaders are. So far, the GOP has done a much greater job at inducing a compelling message to the public. But it's not to their credit. Really, all they did was exploit the huge gap in the message coming from the White House. The Obama Administration asked for it by trying to sneak this by without much conversation. Now they're trying to have too much conversation.

So far, in all the press coverage and speeches I've seen from President Obama, he still hasn't clearly or compellingly told me what is in the Health Care Bill nor how it will affect the normal American who already has health insurance and are pretty happy with it.

Sadly, putting up a website won't help things. Actually, using the official White House website as a propaganda tool for something that is already very unpopular will cause the White House website to lose credibility. The Obama Administration should have used a stand-alone website without the .gov domain extension. This is not a government issue, it's a political issue and the Obama Administration should have used a separate website.

The new Reality Check website will not help Obama's Health Care Reform bill. People will just look at it as just another propaganda and will be skeptical about whatever they say on it.

The only thing that will help President Obama clear the air is to have a televised debate with a member of the GOP about the Health Care Reform Bill. And whoever wins that debate will own the destiny of the Health Care Reform Bill as it stands now and possibly the entire Health Care Reform issue.