Romney's comments about health care yesterday might have been more damaging than his 47% ones. If played right, this could be a huge hit for him. It's not just what he said was factually wrong - people do die from lack of health insurance, the ER just stabilizes patients, and the service is most definitely not always paid for - but he did so in a way that can give Obama's campaign a new focus and - at the same time - reveals the worst about Romney in a way that furthers existing narratives about him.
Why is Obama running? What's the reason for his presidency? It can be explained easily now. What he achieved was to make it much more difficult for people to go bankrupt over a health issue. No longer can people lose everything because of a weird condition they had when they were 8 prevents them from ever getting coverage again. It's a real fear, one that makes people terrified of losing their job, and Obama has stopped it and Romney would return it. If that's not a reason to vote for Obama, I don't know what is.
However, it's not just that Obama looks better for creating Obamacare, Romney's statements make him look like a rich out of touch man. Only someone obscenely wealthy who only hangs out with other multimillionaires thinks that emergency care is magically paid for for free. Only someone incredibly rich doesn't understand that losing your job could cause you to have to drop your insurance for a month, thus removing your continuous coverage. When you work for the companies, you don't have to fear that a late payment could lead them to drop you, causing a break in service. We all know someone who couldn't afford the COBRA co-pay on unemployment, who wasn't sure how to pay the fee once they lost their job. Why doesn't Romney?
It's not often that a candidate both defines himself poorly and you incredibly well. Romney dug himself a huge hole yesterday. Obama can make it far worse. Slam him on this!