Via The Plum Line, Americans United for Change has a new ad up describing who really runs the "death panels".
The spot, which will run on national cable in a five-figure buy, dovetails with the new White House effort to train public anger on the insurance companies in the reform push.
Transcript-
Narrator: "Their lies about phony death panels have all been proven false...unfortunately, there are real death panels in America."
Dr. Linda Peeno, Fmr. Humana Medical Examiner and Fmr. Blue Cross Medical Director: "In the spring of 1987, as a physician, I denied a man a necessary operation that would have saved his life...and thus caused his death. And I'm haunted by the thousands of pieces of paper on which I have written that deadly word: denied."
Narrator: "We need health insurance reform, now"
I'm not convinced that bringing up death panels at this stage of the game is prudent as we seem to have finally moved past that particularly vile smear campaign and are now fighting for the life of a public option. That said, as mentioned above, this ad is meant to dovetail with the White House's push to train anger on the insurance companies.
Personally, I think we've already milked that for all its worth and we now need to train anger on the real problem:
Senate health-care negotiators agreed late Thursday to ignore the increasingly strident rhetoric from Republican and Democratic leaders and to keep working toward a bill that can win broad support from the rank-and-file in both parties, according to sources familiar with the talks.
If you haven't done so already, please, please please sign the petition and more importantly, if you have signed it - send it to 2 dozen of your friends, families, co-workers and neighbors...really.
Sign the petition!