President Obama famously nominated Jon Huntsman as U.S. Ambassador to China (presumably to get him out of the way) — and complimented Mitt Romney’s health care plan (presumably to politically harm Romney).
Now, a liberal group is praising Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels — presumably in order to “strangle the baby in the crib,” so to speak.
As The Hill reports, a liberal group called,
Protect Your Care launched online ads in Iowa and New Hampshire — two states key to winning the GOP nomination — and Washington, D.C. casting Daniels as divorced from the Tea Party when it comes to healthcare, and as another Republican who, like Romney, crafted a healthcare law similar to Obama’s.
“Governor Daniels could be another welcome adult voice in the health care policy debate. While Governor Daniels has certainly used a lot of the ‘correct’ language for the far right, when push comes to shove on actual policy, his administration in Indiana has been pretty good at helping to implement the Affordable Care Act,” said Eddie Vale, a spokesman for the group. “Daniels assistance in implementing the Affordable Care Act is especially welcome when contrasted with the actions of Governors Perry, Scott and Jindal to block it at behest of the Tea Party.”
The obvious conclusion here is that President Obama and his allies are employing psychological warfare in order to eliminate the most electable (read “moderate”) Republicans from the field. (This seems odd to me, inasmuch as recent history seems to prove that moderate Republicans tend to fare worsethan conservatives in general elections.)
It is unclear to me whether they are sincerely trying to eliminate opposition they perceive to be most electable — or if they are using reverse psychology in order to dupe Republicans into backing moderates — just to spite them…