Hillary is the Obamacare grandmother who never called back
Hillary is Obamacare's grandmother. Put another way: Obamacare is Hillary's grandchild.
This is one of the two crucial messages of the 2016 campaign, and if Team Obama's brutally effective branding of Mitt Romney in early 2012 taught us anything, it is that branding of the opposition has to begin early and be relentlessly hammered home across all platforms and in all languages as soon as the opponent is identified.
Hillary is going to be the Democratic nominee. The time is now for the GOP to begin the defining of Hillary for the contest ahead.
If there is a super PAC out there wondering how best to invest in 2014 Senate campaigns, even as it helps shape the 2016 race, just make an ad that rightly traces Obamacare from its gestation in Hillary's 1600 Pennsylvania offices through the 2008 campaign and on into the legislative sessions of 2009 and 2010.
The perfect add will show Hillary morphing into President Obama morphing into Mary Landrieu (or any other 2014 incumbent) and end with a picture of Hillary and the slogan "Obamacre's grandmother."
The perfect add will show Hillary morphing into President Obama morphing into Mary Landrieu (or any other 2014 incumbent) and end with a picture of Hillary and the slogan "Obamacre's grandmother."
In this case of meta-messaging, to borrow from Dr. Kissinger, the branding of Hillary will have the additional benefit of being true.
Hillarycare would have been — hard to believe but true — even worse than Obamacare has proven to be, for had Hillarycare been birthed in 1994 it would have strangled two decades of medical innovation and diminished a generation of medical professionals as Obamacare is doing before our eyes right now.
Hillary was stopped in her ambitions in 1993-1994, but 2016's electorate must begin to be told that now that the nightmare that is Obamacare was first dreamed up by the lady who would be your next president.
Eventually some reporter will ask the former Secretary of State what is different between her 1993 plan and Obamacare.
She can't but acknowledge that President Obama's plan is actually simpler than what she had cooked up. Bad branding for her, that.
As is the second crucial Hillary message that needs to drummed into the electorate beginning now: Hillary didn't call back.
That night in Benghazi, when Ambassador Chris Stevens was missing, the attacks ongoing and the embassy in Tripoli in chaos with ax-wielding secretaries destroying hard drives in a scene straight out of "Argo," Hillary called and was connected to her number 2, Greg Hicks.
They had a conference call . Hicks proposed some steps. Hillary concurred. The call ended. The battle in Tripoli continued to unfold, the horror grew worse.
Hillary never called Hicks back that long night. It isn't even clear if she called him the next day. She vanished. Took a powder. Went dark.
Even after Stevens was reported dead and the second wave of attacks over, Hillary never called back to encourage or guide Hicks and his team.
She is the grandmother of Obamacare and the lady who never called back. Repeat after me. Again, and again, and again.
HUGH HEWITT, a Washington Examiner columnist, is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio show host who blogs daily at HughHewitt.com.
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