August Doesn't Matter?

by Patrick Appel

That's Michael Scherer's take after reading a new poll that shows little movement on public support of health care:

What matters is what happens in September and through the fall. Will Obama get Republican support? (On this point, the right wing backlash, especially to the degree it impacts people like Sen. Chuck Grassley, matters a great deal.) Will he be able to pass meaningful reforms? (Including ones that liberals cheer, and industry lobbyists decry.) Will be be able to pass anything? By the time we learn the answers to these questions, the August excitement is likely to seem little more than a distant dream.

There is a problem with this line of thought: arguments that make it outside of the beltway need to be seeded early and have plenty of time to incubate. The debates of August will mutate into the debates of September and beyond. That is why the primary attacks against Obama and McCain were seeded months and months before the election.