With the March 31 deadline looming ever closer for people -- especially young adults -- to sign up for coverage through the "Affordable Care Act," the president has used several different and unusual venues to get his message out, ranging from a fake web-based interview with Between Two Ferns host and comedian Zach Galifianakis to a “push for ObamaCare” on Thursday's edition of CBS This Morning.
However, one of his most recent efforts was serving as a guest on Colin Cowherd's ESPN Radio show, when the host threw Obama softball questions about the last drive, which contains "supportive celebrity tweets and videos ... and a tongue-in-cheek tool kit that teaches parents how to get on social media and 'nag' their children 'mercilessly.'"
“You know, it's interesting,” Cowherd noted. “You've been more accessible than other presidents; (Jimmy) Fallon, Ellen (DeGeneres), us, Two Ferns -- which was a riot -- your HealthCare.gov initiative.
“One network suggested (Abraham) Lincoln wouldn't do this. It's obviously a different time, but you embrace young and different," he continued. “Why?”
Obama responded:
One of the hardest things about being president is being in this bubble that is artificial, and unless you make a conscious effort, you start sounding like some Washington stiff.
And so you've got to consciously try to get out of that if you want to remind yourself of the wonderful people that you're supposed to be serving who have a sense of humor and aren't thinking every day about, you know, position papers.
The Democratic occupant of the White House then pulled the conversation back to his reason for being on the program in the first place.
“Most recently, the main reason we're doing it is because I am pushing very hard for folks who may not be paying attention to day-to-day politics that they've got until March 31st to sign up for health care if they don't already have it,” Obama stressed.
Of course, Cowherd's reference to “one network” that claimed “Lincoln wouldn't do this” was actually a swipe at Bill O'Reilly, the host of The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, who opened a recent show by discussing “Using Comedy to Promote ObamaCare.”
Two weeks earlier, O'Reilly said during his “Talking Points Memo” segment, “the interview was a farce, and some believe it was demeaning.”
At that point, the host showed a clip of Galifianakis asking: “What is it like to be the last black president?”
Several minutes later, Obama replied to a bizarre inquiry by stating: “Zach, that's a ridiculous question.”
O'Reilly then quoted White House press secretary Jay Carney as stating that the main reason for the odd discussion was to encourage young people to sign up for ObamaCare before the March 31 deadline.
The Fox News host replied that the event came at a bad time for Obama. “The economy continues to be problematic, and Vladimir Putin is clearly testing the president,” he said. “It looks like Putin clearly believes the president is a lightweight. Will a comedy video counter that?”
O'Reilly then called Obama's appearance on the web program shows he's “a little bit desperate.”
“All I can tell you is that Abe Lincoln would not have done it,” the host added. “There comes a point when serious times call for serious actions. We are a divided nation, which is, I think, is in decline.”
During Thursday's interview, Obama replied that Lincoln “loved telling the occasional bawdy joke and, you know, being out among regular folks.”
It's interesting that the original goal of people receiving health care from the government by the end of this month was actually seven million. Now, after all three major networks spent 100 times more coverage on that web-based interview than the low enrollment the previous week, the administration will be content with “millions” signing on for ObamaCare.
Perhaps the best thing to come out of the approaching health-care deadline is the fact that it will keep ObamaCare in the public eye as we draw nearer to the mid-term election in November. Those results should be very interesting indeed.
