Obama's aides stay on despite exhaustion, health law woes

Dec 22 2013

President Obama's aides are largely staying attached to his administration to help bolster the President's approval ratings amid the health law's considerable problems. In the meantime, the law's proponents are pushing new ways of selling the law.

The New York Times: With Obama Now In Need, Aides Put Off Their Exits
In any White House, the end of the year typically brings staff changes, especially as exhaustion sets in during the later years of an administration. But the Obama team has been as tested as any in decades: by economic calamity, the winding down of two wars, an expansive domestic agenda, various international crises and, lately, the trouble-filled execution of the most ambitious health care program since Medicare. Controversy over the health care law has helped drive Mr. Obama's approval ratings to new lows, a trend that the White House is scrambling to reverse. Longtime aides who stayed with the president into the second term -- thinking that they would remain for months or a year to help with the transition -- are now feeling pressured to extend their service, officials said (Calmes, 12/19).

Politico: For Obamacare Boosters, All Memes Are Good Memes
When it comes to marketing Obamacare, all memes are good memes. So say progressive activists and Democratic strategists, pushing back against a wave of fresh criticism that mocks their youth outreach efforts as somewhere between slightly awkward and totally tone-deaf (Tau, 12/19).