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Spin Doctors for Obamacare
Townhall.com ^ | October 7, 2009 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on 10/07/2009 4:14:03 AM PDT by Kaslin

Lights, camera, agitprop! The curtains opened on yet another artfully staged performance of Obamacare Theater this week. One hundred and fifty doctors took their places on the plush lawn outside the West Wing -- many acting like "Twilight" groupies with cameras instead of credible medical professionals. The president approved the scenery: "I am thrilled to have all of you here today, and you look very spiffy in your coats."

White House wardrobe assistants guaranteed the "spiffy." As the New York Post's Charles Hurt reported, the physicians "were told to bring their white lab coats to make sure that TV cameras captured the image." President Obama's aides hastily handed out costumes to those who came in suits or dresses before the doc-and-pony show began.

But while Halloween came early to the Potomac, these partisan single-payer activists in White House-supplied clothing aren't fooling anyone.

Obama's spin doctors belong to a group called Doctors for America (DFA), which reportedly supplied the white lab coats. The White House event was organized in conjunction with DFA and Organizing for America, Obama's campaign outfit.

OFA and DFA are behind a massive new Obamacare ad campaign, letter-writing campaign and doctor-recruitment campaign. The supposedly "grassroots" nonprofit DFA is a spin-off of Doctors for Obama, a 2008 campaign arm that aggressively pushed the Democrats' government health care takeover. DFA claims to have thousands of members with a "variety of backgrounds." But there's little diversity in their views on socialized medicine (98 percent want a taxpayer-funded public insurance option) -- or in their political contributions.

DFA president and co-founder Dr. Vivek Murthy, an internal medicine physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, served as a member of Obama's Health Policy Advisory Committee and the New England Steering Committee during the 2008 presidential campaign.

DFA vice president Dr. Alice Chen of Los Angeles is an Obama donor and avowed supporter of Organizing for America, Obama's campaign shop run by the Democratic National Committee. On Monday, she posted on the OFA website with an appeal to Democratic activists for letters to the editor in support of Obama's "health care reform."

DFA "senior adviser" Jacob Hacker is an Obamacare architect who laughed at criticism of the plan being a Trojan horse for single-payer coverage. "It's not a Trojan horse, right?" he retorted at a far-left Tides Foundation conference on health care. "It's just right there! I'm telling you. We're going to get there."

And here's a brief political donation history of other top DFA docs compiled by Brian Faughnan at theconservatives.com:

Dr. Hershey Garner (who stood on stage with Obama at the White House event): more than $10,000 in donations to Democratic candidates since 2001.

Dr. Winfred Parnell: More than $5,700 in donations to Democrats since 2001.

Dr. Michael Newman: $4,550 in donations to Democrats since 2001.

Dr. Boyd Shook: $3,500 in donations to Democrats since 2002.

Dr. Jan Sarnecki: $3,400 in donations to Democrats since 2004.

Dr. Amanda McKinney (who also flanked Obama at the White House event): $2,750 in donations to Democratic candidates since 2001.

Dr. Tracy Nelson: $1,500 in donations to Obama.

Dr. Stanton McKenna: $1,000 in donations to Democrats since 2001.

Dr. Jason Schneider: $600 in donations to Democrats since 2001.

Dr. Biron Baker: $500 donated to Obama last year.

Dr. Nick Perencevich: $500 in donations to Democrats since 2008.

Dr. Elaine Bradshaw: $500 in donations to Obama last year.

Who unveiled Doctors for America earlier this spring? No, not ordinary citizens outside the Beltway. The decidedly un-grassroots sponsors of the Doctors for America launch were Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and the left-wing Center for American Progress, which is run by liberal operative John Podesta and underwritten by far-left billionaire George Soros.

CAP is a lead organization in the Health Care for America Now coalition, the so-called "grassroots" lobbying group for Obama's health care takeover legislation run out of 1825 K Street in Washington, D.C., with a $40 million budget. CAP is also the parent group of Think Progress, the far-left website leading the smear campaign against fiscally conservative activists who protested at congressional town halls this summer. And several CAP alumni are now leading the Obamacare push at the Department of Health and Human Services, including special HHS assistant Michael Halle and HHS Director Jeanne Lambrew, a former senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who worked on health policy in the Clinton administration.

CAP/HCAN's most recent initiative? Bussing protesters to the private homes of health care executives last week to bully them over the public option -- even as many health care executives line the pockets of Obama administration officials and allies lobbying on their behalf.

It's all in keeping with the elaborate Kabuki productions that have marked Team Obama's efforts to manufacture support for government-run health care. They've been doctoring it up from Day One.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: spindoctors

1 posted on 10/07/2009 4:14:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
Yeah, the libtards are specialists at astroturf. The nerve of Pelosi.

Μολὼν λάβε


2 posted on 10/07/2009 4:17:04 AM PDT by wastoute (translation of tag "Come and get them (bastards)" or "come get some")
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To: Kaslin

Pseudo-doc photo op aside, protesting at the private homes of CEOs is beyond the pale.


3 posted on 10/07/2009 4:22:52 AM PDT by GnuHere
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To: Kaslin

If you wear one of these, what is your profession?

Meat cutter - Doctor - Perfume Sprayer?

4 posted on 10/07/2009 4:24:36 AM PDT by libertarian27 (Ingsoc: Life, Liberty and the Department of Happiness)
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To: libertarian27
If you wear one of these, what is your profession?

Political lobbyist?

5 posted on 10/07/2009 4:29:43 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: Kaslin

Freepers knew it first!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2355286/posts


6 posted on 10/07/2009 4:35:10 AM PDT by Til I am the last man standing
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To: Kaslin
Just because someone has an MD and wears a white lab coat, don't trust them implicitly. These are evil people - and they are Obama worshipers. They are plotting to give Obama control of people's lives and well being.

I would not trust them with a hang nail.

Josef Mengele

7 posted on 10/07/2009 4:54:17 AM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: SkyPilot

8 posted on 10/07/2009 5:00:38 AM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: Kaslin
But while Halloween came early to the Potomac, these partisan single-payer activists in White House-supplied clothing aren't fooling anyone.

Understatement. This looked like a lame charade imo. "Doctors" in lab coats who were no where near their workplaces. Some positioned like Greek columns behind the president. This photo-op reminded me of Dukakis in the army tank. The administration treats the American public like we're to stupid to see though this.

9 posted on 10/07/2009 5:56:37 AM PDT by Need4Truth (Who can reprogram the Branch Carbonians?)
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To: Kaslin
The curtains opened on yet another artfully staged performance of Obamacare Theater this week.

That's how it looked to me, too!! Michelle never disappoints.

I also had to wonder how many of those people actually WERE physicians?? Some of them looked uncomfortable in the lab coats.

10 posted on 10/07/2009 6:06:59 AM PDT by DustyMoment (FloriDUH - proud inventors of pregnant/hanging chads and judicide!!)
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To: Richard Kimball

Say, is that another gun he has in his right front pocket (in your picture)?? Or is he just happy to see the patient??


11 posted on 10/07/2009 6:09:46 AM PDT by DustyMoment (FloriDUH - proud inventors of pregnant/hanging chads and judicide!!)
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To: Richard Kimball

I have a caption for your photo “Trust me, I work for the government. Now shut up and take your pills!”


12 posted on 10/10/2009 8:02:27 PM PDT by Grundon (no comment)
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