Republicans Have Not Stopped Campaigning Against Obamacare

There’s a
somewhat odd notion going around that Republicans have dropped the
campaign against Obamacare. The New York Times, for
example,
reported at the end of last week that, “Republican attacks on
the health care law dominated the early months of the
campaign, but now have largely receded from view.” 

That’s true only if you’re not looking.

Obamacare was the number one issue for Republican Senate races
between October 13 and 19, as Jeffrey Anderson
points out at The Weekly Standard. Anderson cites
research by Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group indicating
that the GOP pumped out almost 12,000 ads on the
health law that week. You won’t be surprised to learn that they
weren’t in favor of the law. Obamacare was the top issue for
Republican ads the week prior as well, with a similar number of GOP
ads in opposition.

It’s true that Obamacare is less of an issue, relatively
speaking, than it was last year at this time, when the launch and
failure of the exchanges dominated the news. It’s also true that
several Republicans have tripped up trying to talk about the law
recently, saying that major components are not connected to or part
of the law. Compared with six or eight months ago, Republicans are
also probably focusing a little more on general opposition to Obama
and less to Obamacare.

But it’s not the case that Republicans are avoiding the issue,
or that it has mostly disappeared from discussion. To the extent
that they are campaigning on or against any particular policy at
all, it’s opposition to Obamacare.