Day: June 18, 2010
Poll: Plurality Now Supports Health-Care Law
The nation remains divided, with 45 percent in favor and 42 percent opposed to the president’s signature domestic accomplishment.
Still, the shift in public sentiment was significant. Opposition to the overhaul increased after Congress passed it in March. And last month, supporters were outnumbered 39 percent to 46 percent. But the latest survey found the strongest backing for the health care plan since the AP-GfK poll began asking in September…
The poll found support increased since May among men (from 36 percent to 46 percent), people in their prime working years (from 35 percent to 49 percent among 30-49 year-olds) and Republicans (from 8 percent to 17 percent.) The uptick among Republicans comes even as party leaders are calling for the law’s repeal.
The changes coincide with a concerted effort by the Obama administration, congressional Democrats and their allies to sell the immediate benefits of the law.
Tea Baggers Call for Sponsor Boycott of ‘Hardball’ – Please Support These MSNBC Sponsors
First, speaking on behalf of Chris Matthews — which I do not — thanks to the tea baggers calling for a sponsor boycott for all the free publicity for his documentary. I’m pretty sure the film, “Rise of the New Right,” would have been relegated to the remainder bin had they not raised its profile this way.
If they actually watched the piece then, good golly, are these authoritarian wing nuts ever thin-skinned. There is nothing inflammatory in it. In fact, there’s hardly anything new there that regular watchers of legitimate cable news haven’t seen.
My guess is that the people who are so incensed about it relegate their information consumption to Republican propaganda on Fox News, where tea baggery is treated with respect the anti-establishment mob phenomenon has not earned and does not deserve.
I’m no fan of Matthews, who, like Dick Morris and Ann Coulter, owes his broadcast career to his spittle-spewing Clinton hatred in the 1990s. My only quibble with his documentary is with the title. There’s nothing “new” about these tired old Bush lovers. They’ve been around years.
Please Be Sure to Support These ‘Hardball’ Sponsors
Republican Pundits Come Out Strongly in Favor of Apologizing to BP
Now there can be no doubt whose side they are on:
PAT BUCHANAN: “Barton made a very courageous statement in my judgment. … To have anyone stand up and even indirectly defend [BP] and say that they were a victim of a shakedown shows some political courage.”
INGRAHAM: “I think Joe Barton, before he apologized, had a legitimate point.”
NAPOLITANO: “That is a classic shakedown. The threat to do something that you don’t have the authority to do. ”
KILMEADE: “One Congressman calling the BP compensation fund a ’shakedown,’ but does he have a point?”
GINGRICH: “The president is directly engaged in extorting money from a company.”
VARNEY: “It is Hugo Chavez-like, is it not? To seize a private company’s assets.”
Tea Party Nation Head Ups Barton’s ‘Shakedown,’ Calls BP’s $20 Bil Gulf Victims’ Fund ‘Extortion’
Barton, who will be chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee if Republicans win control of the House in November, called the escrow account a “shakedown.” But that was too mild for Phillips, who upped the ante.
The Top 10 Candidate Gaffes of 2010 (so far)
1. Gordon Brown’s “bigoted woman”: This gaffe took place across the Atlantic Ocean, but it impacted Britain’s election this year and ensured that Gordon Brown and the Labour Party would be voted out of power.
2. Martha Coakley’s Schilling is a Yankee fan: This statement in a radio interview showed that she was out of touch with Massachusetts voters. No Boston Red Sox fan would mistakenly say that Curt Schilling is a Yankee fan. This gaffe turned out to be the final nail in Coakley’s coffin.
3. Sue Lowden and Barter-gate/Chicken-gate: This gaffe by Lowden — touting that bartering for health care, like paying doctors with chickens, could benefit the health system — contributed to her June 8 defeat in the Nevada Senate GOP primary, a contest in which she was once the front-runner.
Candidates: Obama Endorsement? Thanks, but No Thanks
Public Policy Polling‘s Tom Jensen assesses the perils of an Obama endorsement:
Democrats are going to have to think really carefully about how they deploy Barack Obama for campaigning this fall. Polls we’ve conducted nationally and in several different states over the last few weeks have found that a candidate being endorsed by Obama is much more likely to elicit a negative response from Republican voters than a positive one from Democrats.
PPP’s most recent national survey found that while Obama had a positive approval rating at 48/47, only 33 percent of voters were more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by him while 48 percent said support from Obama would make them less likely to vote for someone. That’s because only 64 percent of voters who approve of the President say his endorsement would make them more inclined to vote for a candidate, but 91 percent who disapprove say Obama’s support makes it less likely they would vote for one of his preferred candidates.
