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.