Appearing as a guest on Thursday's The Ed Show, MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter - formerly of Newsweek - advised the Obama campaign to argue that, if Mitt Romney is elected President, "a lot of people will die" when Obamacare is repealed.
(Video can be found here.)
A bit earlier, as Alter, host Ed Schultz and liberal columnist Michael Kinsley discussed the infamous Obama superpac ad that blames Romney for a man's wife dying of cancer, Alter complained that what media "should be focused on is what are the consequences of repeal of Obamacare."
He added:
And the consequences, as Mike just indicated, are death. Repeal equals death. People will die in the United States if Obamacare is repealed. That is not an exaggeration. That is not crying fire. It's a simple fact.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Thursday, August 9, The Ed Show on MSNBC:
JONATHAN ALTER: Instead, what the press should be focused on is what are the consequences of repeal of Obamacare. And the consequences, as Mike just indicated, are death. Repeal equals death. People will die in the United States if Obamacare is repealed. That is not an exaggeration. That is not crying fire. It's a simple fact.
If you have preexisting conditions, and you are thrown off of health insurance, or if you get sick after you or your husband, spouse loses the job, you're not going to go to the doctor as soon, your cancer or whatever disease is not going to be caught as quickly, and you odds of dying are much, much increased. So Obamacare will save literally thousands of lives. And this is what the debate should be about: Do we as a country want to throw sick Americans to the wolves, people with preexisting conditions?
(...)
They don't need to embrace this ad and get into a big fight about whether they were calling Mitt Romney a murderer or whatever. They need to move on to a debate about the main issue, which is Obamacare. And they can bring death into the conversation and say, "No, we're not calling Mitt Romney a murderer. What we are saying is that if he's elected President, a lot of people will die." Those are two slightly different but related issues.
