Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown has a problem: he was the deciding Senate vote for Obamacare, and six months ago Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment to block Obamacare. But that’s only the beginning, considering the multitude of speeches and MSNBC appearances where Sherrod championed one of the few ideas that would’ve made Obamacare even worse:
As icing on a bitter Progressive cake, read this interview with Ezra Klein where Sherrod complains that Republicans of old would have let the Democrats pass an even bigger stepping stone towards single-payer socialized medicine:
They don’t have the right wing wackos blowing in their ear. Anybody with any decency and perspective watching this saw how the right wing so overreached by out-and-out lying and scaring people.
I leave to the reader to determine whether Sherrod Brown is in any position to judge another human’s decency or perspective.
How will Sherrod’s cheerleading for a public option in Obamacare be his undoing? Last November, the Tea Party-driven Ohio Healthcare Freedom Amendment — which blocks Obamacare’s individual mandate in Ohio — passed with 2,268,470 votes, 66%/34%. In November 2006, Sherrod Brown won his Senate race 56%/44%,receiving 2,257,485 votes.
Despite the $41 million Big Labor smear campaign against an adjacent issue, the anti-Obamacare ballot measure drew more “Yes” votes in an off year than Sherrod’s anti-war campaign could manage in a year marked by Iraq fatigue, Dubya fatigue, and an Ohio Republican Party almost too embroiled in scandal to hold a circular firing squad. With fewer registered voters, lower turnout, and an extremely limited budget, the Healthcare Freedom Amendment beat Sherrod’s 2006 numbers by nearly 11,000 votes.
Think Sherrod Brown regrets spending several months of his endless MSNBC circuit fighting to make Obamacare even bigger?
With a little research, you don’t have to trust Breitbart.com, the National Taxpayers Union (Sherrod scored an F in their 2011 report card), Club for Growth (Sherrod’s lifetime score is 3%), or the American Conservative Union (Sherrod scored 0% each of the last three years) to realize Sherrod’s voting record is far left of Ohio’s electorate. The landslide passage of the Healthcare Freedom Amendment suggests Ohio’s electorate is likely to realize it, too.
Sherrod Brown’s embrace of socialized medicine plays well in northeast Ohio. As for the rest of the state… let’s just say it’s no wonder Sherrod is already running attack ads!
Follow Jason on Twitter: @jasonahart
You can see the entire C-SPAN2 clip of Sherrod’s May 21, 2009 Senate floor speechcourtesy of our pals at SEIU. The 09/01/2009 Organizing for America rally in Columbus is the same event where Sherrod encouraged the crowd to support socialized medicine in honor of Ted Kennedy. The MSNBC clips from The Ed Show, CNN clip from State of the Union, and both Maddow segments are also from YouTube, as is the recorded statement from Sherrod to the fringe-left cranks at ProgressOhio.
I can’t track down the source for the first clip on YouTube, but leftist radio hostThom Hartmann has a photo of Sherrod at the podium with Bernie Sanders seated next to him.
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