Obviously, among conservatives, Obama’s credibility has been pretty low for a long time. But it’s worth keeping in mind that most people, particularly most young people, tune out politics, generally like the president and think he probably tells the truth most of the time. That’s why yesterday’s White House rally for Obamacare was such a massive gamble. He told millions of Americans that this is all basically no big deal. He told young people who expect to be able to buy anything with one click that they should call the 800 number if there are problems. But when you call the 800 number you get either a busy signal or a recording or a real live operator telling you “try the website” or “come back in a month.”
In other words, this isn’t your usual presidential fib or spin. When Bush (or LBJ) made it sound like the war was going well, most people had to rely on the news to find out it wasn’t. Indeed, most presidential spin usually depends on whether the media will confirm or refute what the president says. In this case, media reports may hurt or help Obama’s credibility but they are at best secondary. The very hard fact for Obama is that he has basically asked millions of Americans to fact-check him personally. He’s promised cheaper and better health insurance that can be bought with ease even if the website is “glitchy” or “too slow.” If any part of that promise — price, quality, delivery — doesn’t meet that expectation for an individual consumer, that individual consumer won’t need to read about it here or the New York Times or anywhere else. And no spin from MSNBC will persuade him his bad experience was really good.
This is a very big risk the president is taking, not just for himself, but for his party and for liberalism in general.