The Obama campaign is distributing two dishonest mailers in Ohio. The first mailer falsely claims that Hillary said NAFTA was a "boon" to the economy. Hillary never said that. The Obama campaign is basing the quote on a 2006 Newsday article that characterized her views this way without any substantiation. In fact, Newsday recently said that the Obama campaign's use of their article was "misleading." The Politico called the Obama campaign's use of the quote "bogus."

The second mailer from the Obama campaign mimics Harry and Louise ads that the health care industry used to scare people into opposing universal health care. The ad claims "Hillary's health care plan forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can't afford it."

Here are the facts:

Sen. Obama fails to mention Hillary's plan cuts costs just as aggressively as Sen. Obama, if not more so.

Hillary's plan contains more generous subsidies than the Obama plan. Noted health expert Ken Thorpe of Emory University concluded that under the Hillary plan, everyone will be able to afford coverage.

The Obama plan leaves 15 million people out, which drives up costs because everyone else ends up subsidizing their emergency care.

The Fact Hub.

At his media availability earlier today, Senator Obama implied that the only health care experts who have criticized the Obama health plan’s failure to provide universal health coverage were Hillary supporters:

Senator Obama: “There are many people who support Senator Clinton, health care experts, who believe in mandates who didn't like the characterization of it, but there wasn't anything inaccurate in what was said.”

Senator Obama’s suggestion is false. Many independent experts who have not endorsed Hillary have criticized the Obama health plan and the Obama campaign’s Harry & Louise tactics.
INDEPENDENT EXPERTS ACKNOWLEDGED AND CONDEMNED OBAMA’S USE OF HARRY & LOUISE STYLE ATTACKS

Harbage, 2/23/08: “As Senator John Edwards former Healthcare Advisor and a currently unaffiliated healthcare reform proponent, I think that anyone familiar with the Harry and Louise campaign from the early 1990s would immediately recognize the similarity between the insurance industry’s attacks and the Obama Campaign’s mailer. This attack simply drives the debate to the lowest common denominator of generating fear.”

Ezra Klein, American Prospect: “When I say that Obama is demagoguing universal health care, this sort of campaign literature is what I'm talking about…The Obama campaign kept their hairstyles and barely even changed their clothing -- ...   more »

Obama does Harry and Louise, again
Paul Krugman - Op-Ed Columnist - New York Times Blog

The Obama campaign sends out an ugly mailer. Sorry, but this is just destructive — like the Obama plan, the Clinton plan offers subsidies to lower-income families. And BO himself has conceded that he might have to penalize people who don’t buy insurance until they need care. So this is just poisoning the well for health care reform. The politics of hope, indeed.

Update: Ezra Klein adds a screenshot of the original Harry and Louise ad — they’ve obviously deliberately copied it. Just to remind everyone, Harry and Louise were the center of the vile smear campaign the insurance lobby waged against health care reform in 1993 — and this time a Democratic candidate is doing the smearing for them.

Ezra also points us to an Urban Institute study that shows that yes, mandates are essential. The key passage:

Obama does Harry and Louise, again - Paul Krugman - Op-Ed Columnist - New York Times Blog.