Bloody right you are. Obama the candidate preached bottom up democracy and personal responsibility. Taking the steps you propose would advance both of those goals.

OFA Health Care Campaign is imperfect, but fills a gap.

Veterans of the Clinton era will remember that the President has to get his unfiltered message out.

Presidential addresses, news conferences and photo ops are one way. Earned media coverage is another way. But, the media is subject to distortions from opposition talking points (Republican Party, industry groups, interest groups, pundits, etc) where the opposition misstates facts, provides false choices or otherwise inappropriately frames issues. Having informed supporters who can intervene in water cooler conversations at work, or dinner table conversations at home or provide feedback to local media outlets who may be missing all or some of the point.

The buzz matters. Even if you win the Congressional vote, if the people believe the program has been imposed on them (like TARP) or believes an opposition caricature "rationed health care with wait lists for emergency surgery" then a historic achievement will be perceived as costly boondoggle.

During the Clinton health care debate the opposition tactics included:
1. Saying they couldn't comment on the health care plan because there wasn't enough detail
2. When the detail was released, the opposition reversed itself and said the plan was too complex.
3. A complex diagram of the existing health care system was misrepresented by the opposition as indicating the complexity of the Clinton plan.

One problem I have encountered with our local newspaper here in Orlando is that they were locked into the paradigm that if Medicaid was getting too expensive, the only option was to "cut entitlements." They did not see how reducing health care costs generally would flow through the the medicaid program in particular, they claimed the New York Times made the same error.

On the single payer issue, OFA activists need to take note of Dr. Howard Dean's compromise, the "public option." A "healthcare reform that allows individual Americans to choose either a universally available public healthcare option like Medicare or for-profit private insurance."
http://standwithdrdean.com/

Dr. Dean's "public option" is consistent with President Obama's second principle that, "Americans must have the freedom to keep whatever doctor and health care plan they have, or to choose a new doctor or health care plan if they want it."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-R...

The top down priority on Health is out of sync in the Orlando metro with the increasing desperation of the foreclosure crisis (see todays RealtyTrac press release) and the likely grassroots opposition to an expensive new nuclear plant that is already increasing electric bills. There is growing support for renewable energy, though Florida is terra icognito on the Department of Energy wind maps. One promising alternative is placing turbines in the Gulf Stream Ocean current which comes within 15 miles of the southeast Florida coast in the form of the "Florida Current." Google "FAU COET" for details.

In terms of Democratic Party priorities, party activists are painfully aware that their backs are to the wall with the last chance in 2010 to regain control of the Florida Legislature before the 2010 census becomes the 2011 redistricting. Failure of Democrats to regain control of the Florida Legislature would result in a hostile Republican gerrymandering that would make Tom Delay's Texas redistricting look like a tea party. So from a jaded, cynical party activist perspective, a pep rally for health care looks like a downright silly waste of time and resources.

But, OFA is needed. The Obama campaign brought a lot of new people into the process creating a new political network. However, by insisting on hiring students and out of town organizers for Field Director and Deputy Field Director positions; once the organizers left town (like a circus leaving town) there were holes in key nodes of the network. The damage would not have been more thorough than if the Republicans had assassinated the field directors (at least in that awful scenario at least we would martyrs to rally around). So, OFA has the task of gathering newcomers to politics who have lost their principle contact to the political world!

Another organization issue is that the newbies that are left had far less training than the FDs and DFDs that left town. Many of the volunteers that showed up at the Listening Tour primary training consisted of showing at HQ and being told the 4 things they could do to elect Senator Obama as our next President (3 voter contact tasks plus one data entry task). So, OFA has to provide a task now that meets their current skill level (health care campaign) while rolling out a training program to upgrade their skills to participate in a majority party that has its back to the wall to avoid the fate of being marginalized at the state level for another decade because of partisan gerrymandering. The OFA and the local party has to carry out this urgent retraining while being gracious and not condescending.

The one hope for OFA is that the Obama Campaign was phenomenally successful at training. If the OFA's state by state plans actually reflect the realities in each and not just a top down cookie cutter than OFA may right itself.

OFA activists should learn from their spiritual forebearers at DFA (DFA was formed from Dean for America, OFA was formed from Obama for America). The local DFA groups took on their own name and operated semi-autonomously, but benefited from the national DFA training programs, website and fund raising capabilities (the local DFA chapters voted on which local campaigns would receive national attention on the DFA website and e-mails).

Jim Callahan
Founder, CHANGE for Orlando
Orlando, FL