Eyes on OFA in Final (?) Health Care Push
BY Nancy Scola | Tuesday, March 16 2010
Credit: Organizing for America, titled "Health reform rally outside of Congressman Mark Schauer's office in Jackson, Michigan"With this perhaps, maybe, possibly being the final push for health care reform legislation for at least the near political future, there's been a renewed focus on Organizing for America. Here's a taste of today's coverage:
- ABC News reports on OFA's week-long organizing push to get health care over the finish line: "It's Day 7 in Organizing For America's Final March for Reform. The president's fundraising arm is reaching out to its 13 million members, asking them to not only call their representatives in Congress, but also call strangers with Republican representatives who may be leaning toward a no vote on health care reform to then inspire them to call their representatives to vote yes."
- NPR's Mara Liasson looks at a range of opinions on the group's record, including a quote from former AFL-CIO political director Steve Rosenthal: "[F]or most Americans, if you spent a year on the job and didn't have anything to show for it at the end of the year, you probably wouldn't be working in that job for very long."
- A local NBC affiliate in Canfield, Ohio reports on how "[s]upporters of President Barack Obama's plans to reshape the country's health care system gathered in Canfield Monday morning at Congressman Charlie Wilson's office" to thank the Democratic representative for backing the reform measure.
- And from the imitation-as-flattery file, the Washington Post's Dan Eggen reports on how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is ramping up its own "grassroots" operation -- [m]odeled in part on Barack Obama's 2008 campaign juggernaut."