WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Not so fast on ‘Mediscare’ and bellwethers.

So we’re supposed to believe that the special-election results in New York’s 26th Congressional District were a bellwether of a 2012 Republican disaster because Democrat Kathy Hochul won by making Medicare an issue. Of course, Democrats would say Medicare was the main issue, especially after one of the party’s ideological advocacy group allies gained national attention with a TV spot showing a Paul Ryan look-alike shoving Granny over a cliff. Predictably, the morning after the election, the New York Times pronounced the results “a referendum on House Republicans’ efforts to reform Medicare.” It was as if GOP candidate Jane Corwin and her national Republican supporters had begun every campaign speech by declaring, “I can’t wait to get to Washington to help John Boehner and Paul Ryan throw all those old people off of Medicare!”

And what should Republicans now be talking about instead of Medicare reform, according to their friends on the Democratic side of the aisle and in the liberal media? Jobs and the economy. And right on cue, those Republicans tearing away from Mr. Schumer’s tent whip out a “new” job creation plan that looks very much like the one they’ve been pushing all year. Apparently, they think that will make their tormentors stop jumping out of the bushes.

Here’s why such advice on campaign strategy is suspect: A quick check of House Speaker John Boehner’s website finds that since April 1 he has issued 64 news releases discussing jobs and the economy, compared to 22 on Medicare reform. By contrast during the same period, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democrats’ chief national campaign voice on NY-26, issued 16 news releases on ending Medicare, and only two on jobs and the economy. In other words, Boehner talked about creating jobs and getting the economy growing again almost three times for every one time he discussed Medicare. As for Corwin, she gave one speech with a lukewarm endorsement of the Republican Medicare reform proposal.

Put another way, maybe the Republicans lost because they didn’t talk enough about Medicare reform.

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