What does “The Obama Experiment” mean to you?
As an artist, Mike Cuffe has felt the high cost of premiums for health care insurance hit home and has gone through periods of 
not having any health insurance coverage at all. He’s also watched recently as more than one family member has been denied life saving treatments, “due to system that focuses on increasing shareholders revenues than on choosing wellness.”
Cuffe’s “TheObamaExperiment.com” site began in March 2008 to raise awareness by “creating art around then Senator Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency.” Then it took a turn for the strange in mid-July when the RNC launched a website using the same name evidently intended to obfuscate the debate and counter sentiment favoring President Obama’s campaign for health care reform.
“Currently I find myself in a direct debate with the Republican National Committee over my website The Obama Experiment. I’ve created a health care piece entitled Support Wellness: Nationalize Health Care to offset their attack on Health Care Reform. You can watch me paint the image in time lapse…”
Here’s the story about Cuffe’s scuffle with the RNC, which is working to spin and propagandize the national debate over health care reform that a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC revealed is marred by misinformation. Any way you slice it 91% of Americans think at least some reform is necessary, yet over half have been taken in by spin-mongering about non-existent death panels and baseless rumors about a purported government take-over of health care.
In short, the GOP picked a name eerily similar to the domain Cuffe was using, TheObamaExperiment.com and inadvertently directed a lot of traffic Cuffe’s way. When asked what he felt about the Republican version of The Obama Experiment, Cuffe said,
“I see it as a win, win situation. If they’re going to tell people why they are against health care, I am going to tell people why I am for it. Their Obama Experiment dialogue is sending a great deal of people to my Health Care supportive website. I’m just the ying to their yang.”
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I love and appreciate your artwork and your enthusiasm! Being a misplaced Yankee, stuck in the South, I feel that maybe you should create a second version of your beautiful painting. One that depicts a young white woman. In addition to the conservative Republicans being against all of President Obama’s policies, I truly feel in my heart they are also racists! I don’t think they would be acting out as much as they are if we had a white president. With that in mind, I feel these zealots will look at your artwork and see a Black Welfare Recipient, not someone that they can relate to themselves. If you could produce a second piece, showing a young white woman, maybe – just maybe – it will strike home to a few of them! Just my opinion. I hope I didn’t offend you. Thank you for all you do!!!