Was contraception a "shield issue" for President Obama this week?
Look at the calendar when considering why President Obama chose this week to appear to pick a fight with Catholic bishops over coverage of contraception in the Affordable Care Act. The President knew that CPAC would be a big megaphone for Romney, Gingrich, and Santorum.
The Republican the President will face in the fall could have used this megaphone for false attacks on the state of the economy, the Keystone pipeline, 'crony capitalism', and many other favorite refrains. But the President steered them into wasting their media spotlight on contraception, and into moving them to the extreme right in a way the President will be able to exploit in the fall.
Newt Gingrich's mid-90s political playbook emphasized the importance of using one political issue to 'shield' a candidate against attacks on other issues on which there might be more vulnerability.
Is contraception such an issue for President Obama this week?
The President once again played "rope-a-dope" with Republicans and the media, letting them exhaust themselves with ultimately meaningless attacks on health care regulations. Then, on the very day all three R candidates addressed CPAC, he nudged them out of extended ocoverage on the evening news with a brilliant "compromise" on contraception.
He also exploited the attention the controversy generated to remind women that the new regulations would force insurers to make contraception available to every insured woman with zero copays.
Was this week a classic example of using a "shield issue" to deflect attacks on the economy and other ultimately much more important issues in November?
Of course, the President and his strategists may have improvised by choosing a shield issue unrelated to the issues they wanted Republicans to avoid this important week.
WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?
From http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1276 :
"Extra! Update February 1995
'Language: A Key Mechanism of Control'
"A shield issue is just, you know, your opponent is going to attack you as lacking compassion," a GOPAC training tape advises. "You better find a good compassion issue here, you know, you show up in the local paper holding a baby in the neonatal center, and all you're trying to do is shield yourself from the inevitable attack."
