Andy Griffith of "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Matlock" fame is pitching for President Obama by appearing in a TV ad touting the new health care law. The ad serves to assure senior citizens like Griffith, who is 86, that their benefits won't be cut by the new health care law.
Poll Results
CBSNews reports that recent polls across the U.S. have determined that most senior citizens are still skeptical abo
ut what will happen to their Medicare benefits once the new law actually takes effect. The new ad is a 30 second clip featuring Andy Griffith saying the following.
"1965, lot of good things came out that year, like Medicare," Griffith starts out, adding, "This year, like always, we'll have our guaranteed benefits."
He goes on by saying, "And with the new health care law, more good things are coming," including, "free check-ups, lower prescription costs and better ways to protect us and Medicare from fraud."
Don't Shoot the Messenger
According to the Christian Science Monitor, "the message and the messenger should be a slam-dunk." By this they mean that Griffith, an American icon of goodness and simplicity (who wouldn't believe someone like Andy Taylor from Mayberry, RFD?) will appeal quite nicely to the senior citizens in our country. The CS Monitor does add, however, that the majority of seniors are still worried that President Obama's new health care law will cost them as it helps the uninsured.
Medicare claims the ad featuring Andy Griffith is not political in nature, but instead serves to educate senior citizens about the benefits the new law will afford them.
Andy Griffith and President Obama's new health care law ad will run on CNN, the Weather Channel, Hallmark and Lifetime. Incidentally, and quite definitely not coincidentally, these are all channels that are notably frequented by America's senior citizens.
Set Up or Reassurance?
Is this an ad designed to set up our senior citizens by reassuring them that things really aren't so bad, using Andy Griffith to soften the blow? Or is it factual reassurance, where Andy Griffith is the comforting factor designed to calm nerves and squelch fears? It seems that the general population of the United States will need to make that decision over time, as one by one the changes to Medicare are implemented and our seniors learn first hand what the new health care law really offers.
By the way, the cost for Andy Griffith and the creation of the ad for the new health care law was paid for by Medicare for $700,000.
What do you think?
Watch the new health care law ad featuring Andy Griffith here.
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Photo Credit: WikiMedia
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Comments: 22
good to see you Chuck, ever the diplomat.
I maintain that "REASSURING" the populace about something that ALL they can do is VOTE in reaction to at this point is campaigning.
Instead of calling me names how about EXPLAINING where I am wrong?
Kimberly, Andy Griffith isn't touting for Obama. He's doing a reassurance piece for people on Medicare and Medicaid. Your title is unfair.
Not for hte Administration - for Medicare. Medicare administration doesn't change with presidential elections. It's not like EPA.
" WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday to review Obama administration nominees included questions over how one handled a personal tax issue.
The committee was considering the nominations of Robert Reischauer and Charles Blahous as Social Security and Medicare trustees, and Michael Camunez, who has been nominated as assistant commerce secretary for market access and compliance.
President Barack Obama has recently nominated several candidates who've had troubled getting certain taxes paid.
Sen. Jim Bunning (R, Ky.) grilled Reischauer about farming property he owns in Canada. Reischauer failed to include rental income from the property on his tax return, which he described as an oversight. "
you can't have it both way, the idiot dubya can't ahve been all powerful in ruinging things and then maintain that Obama is not responsible for what goes on.