On health issue, viral comes around on Obama

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama became president after capitalizing on the power of viral Internet videos, from the "Obama girl" to policy-oriented posts. Now, the president's health care reform push may be in trouble from those same tools.

A video showing Obama and Democratic Reps. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois had been viewed more than 748,000 times on YouTube as of Monday. The video shows the three talking separately at different times about a proposed government-run health insurance option and a separate proposal to make the government the "single payer" source of all health insurance.

In raucous town hall meetings around the country, opponents of the Democrats' health care push have cited comments by Obama and Frank, especially, as evidence that the Democrats' real goal is government control of health care.

The video was created by Pam Key, a 42-year-old children's book illustrator from Southern California, and posted on YouTube and her NakedEmperorNews.com site, which features selective video clips with captions calling Obama, among other things, a "socialist zealot."

Her video and others showing the comments by the three Democrats prompted the White House to set up an e-mail tips box for people to report "fishy" and incorrect information about health care reform. By Monday, the tips box apparently had been replaced by a page on the White House website (whitehouse.gov/realitycheck) that includes an invitation to "Tell us what myths we should address next."

Critics said the response smacks of Big Brotherism. Key described the White House's pushback as "stupid."

There is fresh evidence of the video's impact. Over the weekend, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the government-run health insurance option isn't an essential part of Obama's reform plans.

This isn't Key's first viral hit. Other video clips — one on the housing bailout and a compilation of Obama's speeches and statements about his philosophy of government — were viewed more than 1 million times each.

Key, who said she's conservative on most but not all issues — she favors gay marriage, for example — decided to start posting the videos after reading Obama's "Dreams from My Father" and concluding the media weren't telling the whole story about Obama's association with the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, among other things.

All of her videos, she said, are on the public record, in context, and footnoted.

If Hillary Clinton had gotten the Democratic nomination, "I would not be doing any of this," Key said in an interview, because the media "report on the Clintons honestly."

The Internet skirmish again shows the political potency of viral videos, which start with a single post and move rapidly into mega-views, sometimes in minutes. Ironically, some of the footage Key used in the video was shot by proponents of a government-run health care system.

One grainy excerpt on the video shows Obama telling an AFL-CIO audience in 2003 that he supported a single-payer plan. A second excerpt shows Obama telling the Service Employees International Union in 2007 that he envisioned a 15-20 year "transition process" from private to public-run health care coverage if Americans were given a public option.

Obama has consistently said he favors a public option only to help cover those who don't have health insurance and to keep private insurers "honest."

The interview with Frank, which by itself has been viewed tens of thousands of times on YouTube, was shot by Single Payer Action, a group claiming to have 1 million supporters of a government-run system.

"They've posted it, we're using it," said Keith Appell, a Republican media strategist who has used the Frank clip for a group called Conservatives for Patients' Rights.

Last week, as Obama prepared to defend his health care push in Montana, Appell mailed a link of Frank's interview to CPR supporters and reporters.

"Obama has stated emphatically that the public option will not lead to (single payer)," Appell said. "(Frank) says emphatically that it will — and that it's actually 'the best way' to get to government-run health care, which he supports. So which is it? Is Frank misinformed? Is Obama?"

In late July, Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, told a Single Payer Action interviewer that he favors a single-payer system but didn't have the votes in Congress to pass it.

"I wish we did," Frank said. "I think if we get a good public option it could lead to single payer."

Later, he added: "The best way we are going to get single payer, the only way, is to have a public option and to demonstrate its strength and power."

Frank's press secretary, Harry Gural, said that accurately reflects his boss' position but is not a prediction that a single-payer system would be inevitable under the Democrats' proposed reforms.

"Maybe the people won't like the public option," Gural said. "It will be their choice."

On the Key video and others circulating on the Internet, Schakowsky recounts how a health care insurance executive told her a public option would drive private insurers out of business.

"He was right," Schakowsky said twice.

Her spokesman, Trevor Kincaid, said the clip is from three or four months ago, and "out of context." He said Schakowsky was referring to how a public option would create more choice and competition for people seeking health insurance.

To contact Chuck Raasch e-mail craasch@gannett.com