Deja vu: Obama and the doctors in white

Mar 3, 2010 — Washington Post

Garance Franke-Ruta

By Garance Franke-Ruta

If the more than year-long push for comprehensive health-care reform sometimes has felt like the never-ending story, it's not just because of the consistent messaging and many, many presidential addresses on the topic. Some of the presidential backdrops accompanying the effort also have been a study in repetition. Case in point: the men and women in white coats who stand with the president for reform, as they did again Wednesday during the president's remarks urging Congress to "finish the job."

March 3, 2010:

President Obama speaks about health-care reform as medical professionals look on in the East Room of the White House. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Last October, Obama also stood with men and women in white coats at the White House for a photo op. That staging caused the president a bit of trouble after it was revealed coats were handed out on site to those physicians who forgot to bring their own and were wearing regular civilian gear.

Oct. 5, 2009:

President Obama shakes hands with doctors after making remarks on health-care reform in the White House Rose Garden. (Gerald Herbert/The Associated Press)

Nor have visits to and with the lab-coated set been just a matter of presidential image-making. Obama's campaign for the presidency included such as well, as the below shot taken shortly after candidate Obama released a campaign health-care plan shows.

May 29, 2007:

Then- Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) talks with Dr. Mark Anderson while touring a cardiology research lab before speaking about his health-care plan at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)