Ezekiel Emmanuel deserves props for assuming the thankless task of slowly and patiently explaining that nothing the major Democrats are proposing even nears the dread "socialized medicine." But it's basically irrelevant. Republicans aren't using "socialist" as a descriptor. They're using it as a smear. And they'll continue to do so until the world loses its power, or the press pushes back -- in accordance with what it already knows.
Emmanuel, remember, is writing this in The Washington Post. So everyone at the paper now knows that the Republican presidential candidates are lying when they utter this attack. The question then becomes one of courage: Will The Post take this newfound knowledge to heart, and every time Rudy Giuliani uses the term "socialized medicine," run a ponderous article about Giuliani's willingness to lie to the electorate in order to gain political advantage? That's certainly as important, and newsworthy, a piece as "For Fred Thompson, It's TIme To Turn On The Gas." And it's indisputably true, which should qualify it as "objective."
As for Democrats, it's time they stopped explaining that their plans are being misrepresented. There's no reason that the party with the comprehensive, popular proposals and the public lead on the issue should be the one constantly defending against attacks. That Democrats repeatedly explain that their plans don't count as socialism, while Republicans aren't feeling forced to explain how they can possibly countenance leaving tens of millions of Americans, including millions of children, without health insurance, is ludicrous. The Left needs to learn to attack, not simply assume their policy superiority will carry them through.
Update: El Cid notes:
Still, I think it was a strategic error for Democrats to name their health program The Heroic Strength of the Proletariat Preservation of Health and Medical Defeat of Capitalism Act. I know names aren't important, but this might have not been the best spin.
Fair enough.
