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A potent alliance of Republicans, church pastors, insurance
companies and rightwing media commentators have forced President Barack
Obamaon to the road to sell his ideas of health reform in America.
Obama
flew to Montana in the west Friday to confront critics at a public
meeting and is due to return to the fray again Saturday in Colorado.
Both states have a reputation for independence and outspoken
individualism.
A network of anti-health care groups have put
Obama's proposals in jeopardy with disruptive tactics at public
meetings across the U.S. and misrepresentation of his plan, in particular
that he wants to encourage euthanasia. Some of the opposition has been
orchestrated by the same groups and individuals that successfully
blocked President Bill Clinton's health reform plan between 1992 and
1994, including commentators Bill Kristol and Betsy McCaughey. But the
growth of the internet has expanded the ability of opponents to spread
their message, multiply networks and target public meetings.
The
Republican party, on the defensive since its crushing defeat in
November's presidential and Congressional elections, sees health care as
a first sign of Obama's vulnerability. Much of the damage to the health
package is being done by Christian pastors such as Rick Joyner, of the MorningStar ministries based in South Carolina. Joyner, who has a large following, on his
website raises the spectre of Hitler and Stalin, a comparison that has
entered the mainstream of arguments by opponents of health reform.
Describing the health care bill as diabolical, Joyner writes: "As incomprehensible as it may seem, this is about euthanasia, the
power to determine who lives or dies in America. Hitler and Stalin
would have loved to have had a means such as this for dispatching the
millions they killed. It would have made their job much easier, and
probably given them the ability to kill many more than they did. This
bill is sinister."
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