May 31, 2012 04:03 AM UTC

Hickenlooper Gleefully Replants Foot In Mouth

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• by: Colorado Pols

THURSDAY UPDATE: Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office further clarifies in a statement:

“It’s abundantly clear that nowhere in the interview did the Governor express opposition to the individual mandate,” said Megan Castle, a spokeswoman for Hickenlooper.

“What he said is that, put in the right context, most consumers will want to buy coverage if it is made available and affordable. If the Supreme Court strikes down the federal mandate, Colorado will be forced to consider other options to provide insurance, and that hypothetical is what the Governor responded to.”

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FOX 31’s Eli Stokols, here we go again…

In a long interview with Ryan Warner of Colorado Public Radio, Hickenlooper said he wouldn’t push for a state-level health care mandate like that passed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney in Massachusetts.

“I’m not sure a mandate is the right word for it,” Hickenlooper said. “But I think we have said from the beginning we want to find ways to expand coverage to more people, to improve outcomes and to control costs.”

Supporters of the individual mandate argue that it’s not only Constitutional, but necessary to get more buyers into the health care market in order to drive costs down.

“You’ve got to get people in the pool, but there are a lot of different ways to do that,” Hickenlooper said.

Colorado Republicans pounced on the statement, firing off a press release titled: “Hickenlooper opposes Obama’s individual mandate”, contrasting what they interpret as the governor’s opposition to the mandate with Colorado’s trio of Democratic congressional candidates who support it…

So first of all, Republicans are overreaching more than a little when they say Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper “opposes Obama’s individual mandate,” since that’s not what he was actually talking about. Hickenlooper was asked in this Colorado Public Radio interview if he would call for a state mandate for health coverage in the event that the Affordable Care Act were to be struck down by the Supreme Court next month. That’s not really the same thing.

And the fact is, this isn’t West Virginia. Colorado voters soundly rejected Amendment 63 in 2010–a ban on mandated health insurance. Gov. Hickenlooper has repeatedly defended the Affordable Care Act. So we can skip the Earl Ray Tomblin comparisons.

But obviously–mind-blowingly, exasperatingly obviously–a Democrat governor telling the press that “I don’t think you have to mandate” health insurance, right now, is going to be seized upon and regurgitated by adversaries of fellow Democrat Barack Obama from sea to shining sea. Hickenlooper can plead he’s being taken out of context, and that he supports the Affordable Care Act, which he does, but do you think Karl Rove gives two shits about the context?

Thus John Hickenlooper fails Political Sensibility 101. Again.