President Obama’s campaign arm has launched a website dedicated to help push health care reform through Congress.
Organizing for America (OFA) sent an email to its massive email list Wednesday morning announcing the website – mybarackobama.com/HealthCare.
The site breaks down Obama’s healthcare goals into three broad categories: “Reduce costs,” “Guarantee choice” (including a public option) and “Ensure quality” care for all. It also urges users to sign an online petition to Congress in support of those goals.
“The race to pass real healthcare reform in 2009 is heating up. Early drafts for a full proposal are already circulating in the Senate and in the House,” OFA director Mitch Stewart writes in the email. “While our opponents twist arms to weaken reform, the future of American health care is up for grabs. That’s why we’re launching our Health Care Action Center. It’s a one-stop shop for taking action and learning more to build support for real reform.”
This is the second time OFA has sought to put its massive email list to use in pushing legislation. In March, they sought to drum up support for Obama’s budget. That effort got mixed reviews.
A couple things worth noting: First, in OFA’s defense, this is new waters – no president has had an email list like this and sought to use it for legislative priorities.
Second, this attempt appears to be geared as generating high numbers of participants, that can then be touted to the press. Signing an online petition is really easy and the goals listed are so broad that they would appeal to most, I think.