Grassroots

Health Care for America Now, a new $40 million campaign to push for universal health care coverage in 2009, kicked off today with a press conference at the National Press Club.

I tend to be skeptical about any campaign with the word "Now!" in it, but early signs suggest this will be a smart effort. Huffington Post has a good write up:

....

The work of Health Care For America Now was first made public late last week. But the group, with Elizabeth Edwards as a figurehead, offered expanded insight into the details of its campaign during a meeting on Monday. In addition to spending $40 million -- $1.5 million of which will be put behind an initial ad buy (national TV, print, and online) -- the group will be sending organizers to 52 cities, blasting out emails to 5 million households, airing spots on MSNBC and CNN and submitting op-eds to major papers (officials hinted at the New York Times piece to come).

In addition, the campaign is going to take advantage of Moveon.org's massive data files to reach out to like-minded supporters and officials promised to work in Democratic and Republican districts alike.

"We'll have an organizer in the district of every Blue Dog Democrat," said HCAN campaign manager Richard Kirsch of the conservative Democrats.

"The focus of the campaign," he added, "is on national legislation. "This year, however, it is also a referendum: do you support quality, affordable, health care for all, or an alliance with the private insurance industry?"

Kirsch stressed repeatedly that the effort was legislative, not political. And, as such, the campaign will not offer direct criticism of John McCain's health care policy. Nor are there plans, at this point in time, to coordinate with Barack Obama -- who has stressed that he will make health care legislation a priority in the White House -- or Ted Kennedy -- who is reportedly set to relaunch a Senate effort to achieve universal care.

....

And Ezra Klein notes how different this campaign will be from the last effort:

... shortly before the Clinton plan came out, the Democratic National Committee asked Heather Booth to build their field campaign for the Clinton heath care plan. So Democrats did have a field operation, I asked her last year. She laughed at me. "No," she said. "No." The problem wasn't just that the DNC couldn't get its act together, but that no one on the Left could. Labor was exhausted and angry after the NAFTA fight. The AARP was keeping its powder dry so they could bargain for more gains right before the legislation passed. Organizations like MoveOn, Campaign for America's Future, and Democracy for America didn't exist. "There really wasn't a unified effort on the progressive side," said Booth. "Everyone was fighting for their portion of a bill so strongly that it was hard to fight for something overall. And so we got nothing."

The political paralysis did not extend to reform's opponents. The Health Insurance Association of America raised and spent $50 million ($69 million in 2008 dollars). The NFIB flooded Congress with hundreds of thousands of letters, calls, and visits from angry small business owners. The Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the Manufacturers Association of America, and anyone else you can think of was organizing, spending, and attacking.

So it's of both enormous practical and symbolic significance that, in 2008, the first major health reform coalition with serious money and a genuine pressure plan is on the left. ....

Here's the first ad: