Obama camp’s pitch to supporters: ‘Hell yeah, I’m for Obamacare’

President Obama’s reelection campaign on Friday embraced a term that conservatives use to deride the healthcare reform law, asking supporters to declare, “I’m for Obamacare.”

In an email sent to supporters, Obama strategist David Axelrod and campaign manager Jim Messina touted the legislation on the two-year anniversary of its passage.

The email directed readers to a part of the Obama reelection campaign’s website where supporters can “stand with” the president and say, “Hell yeah, I’m for Obamacare.” 

{mosads}”Obamacare means never having to worry about getting sick and running up against a lifetime cap on insurance coverage,” Axelrod writes in one email. “It gives parents the comfort of knowing their kids can stay on their insurance until they’re 26, and that a ‘pre-existing condition’ like an ear infection will never compromise their child’s coverage.”

Another version of the email from Messina said: “If you’re tired of the other side throwing around that word like it’s an insult, then join me in sending a message that we’re proud of it.”

The campaign also pushed the message on Twitter with the hashtag, #ILikeObamaCare.

“If you’re proud of Obamacare and tired of the other side using it as a dirty word, complete this sentence: #ILikeObamacare because…” read Obama’s Twitter. 

Republicans have needled Democrats and the administration for not sufficiently touting the law’s anniversary. The White House did not host any events highlighting the law’s two-year birthday, though Democrats on Capitol Hill and members of the Obama administration have strongly defended it.

“The president has been hiding from his signature legislation on its two-year anniversary because it failed and Americans have had enough.” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said in a statement. “This is a clearly defensive attempt for Team Obama to play clean up on a losing issue,”

Democrats have objected to the use of the term Obamacare in the past. In February of 2011, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, asked whether the “disparaging” term should be permitted on the House floor. 

But the president seems to have warmed up to it as he campaigns for reelection. At a fundraiser last October in St. Louis, he tried to turn the tables on the GOP.

“They call it ObamaCare?” Obama said. “I do care! You should care, too.”

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) has urged Democrats to embrace the president’s role in passing the healthcare law and has handed out buttons that say, “I [heart] ObamaCare.” 

“The fact that a healthcare bill is named after a first-term president who does what two other presidents before him couldn’t accomplish is really a compliment,” Conyers said in June of 2011. 

— This story was last updated at 5:56 p.m.