Showing posts with label ObamaExperiment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ObamaExperiment. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Tom Hayes: What does “The Obama Experiment” mean to you?

As an artist, Mike Cuffe has felt the high cost of health insurance premiums hit home and he's gone through many periods of not having any health insurance coverage whatsoever. He's also watched recently as more than one family member has been denied life saving treatments, "due to system that focuses on increasing shareholders revenues than on choosing wellness."

Cuffe's "TheObamaExperiment.com" site began in March 2008 to raise awareness by "creating art around then Senator Barack Obama's bid for the presidency." Then it took a turn for the strange in mid-July when the RNC launched a website using the same name evidently intended to obfuscate the debate and counter sentiment favoring President Obama's campaign for health care reform.
"Currently I find myself in a direct debate with the Republican National Committee over my website The Obama Experiment. I've created a health care piece entitled Support Wellness: Nationalize Health Care to offset their attack on Health Care Reform. You can watch me paint the image in time lapse..."

Here's the story about Cuffe's scuffle with the RNC, which is working to spin and propagandize the national debate over health care reform that a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC revealed is marred by misinformation. Any way you slice it 91% of Americans think at least some reform is necessary, yet over half have been taken in by spin-mongering about non-existent death panels and baseless rumors about a purported government take-over of health care.

In short, the GOP picked a name eerily similar to the domain Cuffe was using, TheObamaExperiment.com and inadvertently directed a lot of traffic Cuffe's way. When asked what he felt about the Republican version of The Obama Experiment, Cuffe said,
"I see it as a win, win situation. If they're going to tell people why they are against health care, I am going to tell people why I am for it. Their Obama Experiment dialogue is sending a great deal of people to my Health Care supportive website. I'm just the ying to their yang."

Digg!