The Life of Julia May 3, 2012 Jill A really cool tool from the Obama campaign looking at one woman’s life, and how a Romney presidency would change her story.
Why didn’t they have something like this when they were trying to “sell” health care reform? I think it would have been really useful to dispel fears about the reforms if, once the bill’s contents were solidified enough to make concrete predictions as to how health care reform would affect individuals in specific situations, you could go onto a website and see how “Obama-care” would affect “Julia” and “Julius” et al. Instead, what happened is that nobody really knew (and many of us are still not sure) how health care reform will affect us: if we loose our health insurance through work would we be required to spend $5K/year, that we couldn’t afford, on health insurance? And if we couldn’t find a cheap enough plan, how would we document our search process to get subsidies for the plans we could find? Since people didn’t know what to expect, they just assumed the worst. In general, how come the Obama admin can’t seem to communicate how its (proposed) policies affect people outside of an election year. I know that some people will think that Obama is a crazy socialist no matter what (due to his skin color and name), but it would go a long way in terms of gaining support for liberal (and Obama is assumed to be a liberal) policies if Obama would actually communicate how they affect actual people. And it’s thus frustrating seeing this sort of thing — people start to wonder: since Obama and his team do know how to communicate how their policies affect people (and Obama is such a good speechifier): how come they DON’T fully explain their ideas outside of election years? Many people, both right and left begin to wonder, what are they trying to hide? A secret socialist agenda? A secret corporatist agenda?
I loathe most politicians – Obama included. At least he’s the least of all evils, though. I’m honestly afraid of what will happen if Romney becomes the president.
Aaaaaaaand conservatives have taken to the intertubes to recast the Julia narrative as an example of feminism gone wrong, and an example of female cradle-to-grave dependence on the Nanny state government. Seriously, Pell Grants, public schools, and Social Security are so deplorable it’s like Obama threw chum to sharks.
Lauren, Assuming good faith on the part of the Obama administration, the dynamic you describe is probably why the Obama administration has largely refrained from actually defining their agenda in the way I suggest above. While I am hardly an expert in strategery (do you really wanna know what a lousy chess player I am?), it seems to me that getting spooked by the right-wing noise machine like this, though, is not the way to go. The right-wing noise machine needs to make a lot of noise whenever Obama does manage to point out how liberal/progressive policies help real people — otherwise people might actually pay attention to which side their bread is buttered on. So if the right-wing noise machine is up in arms, it isn’t time to back off — maybe this means the Obama admin/campaign is onto something?
I’ll hold my nose and vote for Obama, of course. But I’m not naive enough to expect Campaign Obama to stick around after the election, any more than he did last time.
I loathe most politicians – Obama included. At least he’s the least of all evils, though. I’ll hold my nose and vote for Obama, of course. But I’m not naive enough to expect Campaign Obama to stick around after the election, any more than he did last time. Loathe Obama? Evil? I don’t even loathe Rick Santorum despite loathing everything he stands for, but I don’t get how you could vote for Obama and still loath him. Don’t get me wrong I have on occassion walked into the voting booth and thought ‘I wonder if I could ask for a new booth, because this one only has shitheads to vote for, but I don’t get people who see the Dem and GOP candidates and think ‘Oh look i’ve a got a choice between a total schmuck and the Mashiach’ Then when the Messiah does a few douchy things for the sake of realpolitik, the same people think ‘oh it turns out he was the schmuck after all.
This is the sort of thing that really sets my teeth on edge about Obama. Pushing the idea that Obama is providing opportunities for college kids? Sure, that’s why the cuts to financial aid that’s gone on under his administration have pretty much destroyed the chances to get a degree for several of my friends. Some champion of the Pell Grant. What big scary evil thing will Romney do to our education system? Get rid of it in a clean sweep? it’s already being whittled away. No surprise there’s no mention of Obama’s cuts to education funding in this pathetic piece of propaganda. I’m also just so wowed by Mr. Obama’s helpfulness to my healthcare as a college student. It’s so nice being able to stay on my parents insur–. Oh wait. My parents don’t have insurance. Looks like for “The Life of Lasciel” it doesn’t really matter whether Romney or Obama is in office. Guess it’s 3rd party again in 2012.
I believe that is very effective. At least for women. It’s interesting how the campaign is revolving about women issues, benefits and perspectives. Some people back on the day ridiculed the consciousness raising effort by feminist. Today is evident that we have a strong class perspective, and the power we have due to that. Obama campaign could totally avoid men’s issues, but even Romney can’t avoid women. Now, the text includes the “token boy” it will be interesting to understand why, it could be a daughter to close the circle. Love, Avida
GO OBAMA!!!!! I think this web page is just fantastic– and real. Anyone who rails against this life of julia animation is just pissed because it is the honest to God truth. Romney is a 1%er who makes his living paying lowest taxes off his dividends and island accounts and he made millions and millions laying of workers and bankrupting failing businesses. He is so far removed from the reality of the average person in the US. His hard working stay-at-home wife had six women of color (or as Mitt’s campaign puts it, “colored”) nannies plus personal servants and housekeepers. I am Julia. The President has my vote on lock!!!!
This is the sort of thing that really sets my teeth on edge about Obama. Pushing the idea that Obama is providing opportunities for college kids? Sure, that’s why the cuts to financial aid that’s gone on under his administration have pretty much destroyed the chances to get a degree for several of my friends. Some champion of the Pell Grant. Frankly, the problem goes even deeper; the fact is that as long as colleges and universities can keep raising tuition to keep pace with more loan/grant money (and they show no signs of stopping), it doesn’t matter how well-funded the federal system is, because the law of supply and demand will keep doing its thing.