Mona Charen: Health care is “Obama's tar baby”

Here's National Review columnist Mona Charen in a column dated today:

Obamacare is deeply unpopular. But the president (unlike the country, we must hope) is stuck with it. The measure that was supposed to be the Democrats' bid for greatness has become Obama's tar baby. He must defend it or risk discrediting his presidency. And yet his resistance to repeal will hurt his bid for reelection.

The term “tar baby” has been described by Politico and the Washington Post as “racially charged.” The New York Times, in reporting an apology by John McCain for using the term, noted it is “considered by some to be a racial epithet.” A separate New York Times article noting its use by then-White House press secretary Tony Snow reported that the term “has been used as a derogatory term for a black.”