It’s not the Republicans who are saying this
The pollsters for the last two Democratic Presidents said this about the healthcare bill in the Washington Post: “Never in our experience as pollsters can we recall such self-deluding misconstruction of survey data”. Excerpt:
the battle for public opinion has been lost. Comprehensive health care has been lost. If it fails, as appears possible, Democrats will face the brunt of the electorate’s reaction. If it passes, however, Democrats will face a far greater calamitous reaction at the polls. Wishing, praying or pretending will not change these outcomes. Nothing has been more disconcerting than to watch Democratic politicians and their media supporters deceive themselves into believing that the public favors the Democrats’ current health-care plan…
a solid majority of Americans opposes the massive health-reform plan. Four-fifths of those who oppose the plan strongly oppose it, according to Rasmussen polling this week, while only half of those who support the plan do so strongly. Many more Americans believe the legislation will worsen their health care, cost them more personally and add significantly to the national deficit. Never in our experience as pollsters can we recall such self-deluding misconstruction of survey data.
The White House document released Thursday arguing that reform is becoming more popular is in large part fighting the last war. This isn’t 1994; it’s 2010. And the bottom line is that the American public is overwhelmingly against this bill in its totality…
Voters are hardly enthralled with the GOP, but the Democrats are pursuing policies that are out of step with the way ordinary Americans think and feel about politics and government. Barring some change of approach, they will be punished severely at the polls…Unless the Democrats fundamentally change their approach, they will produce not just a march of folly but also run the risk of unmitigated disaster in November.
When even CNN reports that only 25% of Americans support the current bills, the overall picture is pretty clear, whether you choose to see it or not.
March 13th, 2010 at 11:47 am
“Not the Republicans who are saying this” — hah!! The two “pollsters for the last two Democratic Presidents” who wrote the article are Patrick Caddell and Doug Schoen. All you need to do, if you had any desire to present their true backgrounds, is check Wikipedia. “In 1988, Caddell left the Democratic Party after an acrimonious lawsuit with a Democratic consulting firm. Republicans would often cite Caddell’s tirades against the Democratic Party on the floor of the House and the Senate. . . . His analysis on polls and campaign issues often puts him at odds with the current leadership of the Democratic Party. He has been criticized as often attacking Democratic politicians and predicting the downfall of the Democratic party.” Schoen is a frequent commentator on Fox “News” — ’nuff said.
March 13th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
As usual, all Steve can do is impotently attack the messenger. The facts are what the facts are–the health care bill if passed will hurt all Americans badly, and we are all smart enough to know that. Only a few true believers, like Steve, continue to delude themselves.
March 13th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
No, the facts are that the very title of the posting claims that “Democrats” are bewailing the opinions of Americans on the health care bill. As shown above, that is not the case. And the other salient fact is that all that Republicans really want is for Obama to suffer a defeat on this, and they don’t give a fig whether passage “will hurt all Americans badly”. The real hurt, as stated in research by Families USA, is that without reform 275,000 American adults will die prematurely over the next ten years because they lack insurance. If the reform passes, more Americans will survive and perhaps the nation will gain in humility too, if Limbaugh keeps to his idea to move to Costa Rica (with its government-supported health care).
March 14th, 2010 at 4:03 am
Is anyone else noticing a significant shift to the “right”? Everywhere you look, entertainment awards, public policy review, there is a significant groundswell for re-evaluation and re-setting the course of public discourse and policy direction.
Thanks Steve. Your comments are pointing us in the “right” direction.
March 14th, 2010 at 6:07 am
Well, Steve got one thing right. If the health care bill passes, Americans will learn humility at the hands of government-mandated health care practitioners.