Consider Mike Allen’s post about how some liberal activists are gearing up for the mid-term elections and ask yourself whether they’re succumbing to the fallacy of sunk costs (my emphasis):
There’s no denying that Democrats have already invested a lot of scarce resources passing ObamaCare, including money, their reputation in some circles for playing by the procedural rules of the Senate and much of Obama’s declining popularity. The sad fact is that, despite all that investment, a healthy majority of likely voters still favors repeal. But those sunk costs are irrelevant to the decision about whether it’s reasonable for Democrats to double down on their ObamaCare bets.“Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Victoria Kennedy — widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) — are expected to be named co-chairmen of a $125 million campaign that White House allies are rolling out to defend health care reform amid growing signs Democrats are failing to get political traction on the issue.
“The extraordinary campaign, which could provide an unprecedented amount of cover for a White House in a policy debate, reflects urgency among Democrats to explain, defend and depoliticize health care reform now that people are beginning to feel the new law’s effects.
“The Health Information Center is being started by Andrew Grossman, a veteran Democratic operative who founded Wal-Mart Watch, a labor-backed group to challenge the world’s largest retailer on employee relations and other fronts.
“Grossman told POLITICO that the lessons of Wal-Mart Watch will be helpful on health reform. ‘When you treat people with respect and try to understand how they interact with businesses and politics, you can move them,’ he explained."
Can trying to get people who’ve already been inundated with Democratic messaging (and probably tuned out) to change their minds about ObamaCare really be a better use of $125 million and Obama’s shrinking popularity than spending those resources on telling voters about the great things Democrats plan to do after the election (including implementing and improving ObamaCare) if they succeed in retaining their congressional majorities? I’m no political strategist, but that doesn’t sound very plausible to me.
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