Poll: Majority Of Democrats Has Negative Or No Strong Opinion Of Obama Health Care Plan
There’s a pretty interesting finding in the Washington Post poll just released this afternoon: A solid majority either has a negative opinion or no strong impression at all of the health care initiative being developed by Obama and Dems.
A solid majority, that is, of Democrats.
The finding is buried in a partisan breakdown of the poll that was sent my way by WaPo polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta. WaPo’s initial write-up of the poll noted that when asked to volunteer a word describing the changes to the health care system proposed by Obama and Dems, only 44% of Democrats volunteered a positive word — less than a majority.
I asked for the remaining numbers on that question, and here they are: Twenty-three percent of Dems offered a negative word; 25% had no opinion; and eight percent offered a neutral word.
Grand total: Fifty-six percent of Dems either have negative feelings or no strong impression either way of Obama’s signature domestic initiative.
That’s pretty surprising. It suggests his ongoing refusal to fully commit to a public option continues to damage him with the liberal base. Meanwhile, Obama’s failure to forcefully lay out what he wants from health care reform early on pleased exactly nobody, and left even supporters in the dark about what to think.
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Update: Above edited for clarity.
Update: In fairness, it should be pointed out that a large majority of Dems supported the plan in WaPo’s last poll. The point is that today’s numbers, based on a new line of questioning, suggest that public opinion is far more complex and confused than that even among Dems right now.
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I wonder if you’re conflating Dems’ reactions to Obama’s plan with his efforts to sell it?
Greg, not to be redundant but I think the emphasis here should be on the lack of clarity, in general, about what Obama and Congress are talking about when they say “health care reform” (excluding Republicans, who are talking about non-existant things like death panels). Yes, the public option is popular but if Barack Obama comes to the podium and demands that Congress get a bill done and that it contain x,y,z then a great many independents and Democrats would find that their President once again reflects their views (regardless of how they feel about x,y, or z by themselves).
People just feel like this thing is gumming the works of Congress and look forward to someone getting things going again. The public option is live or die important to maybe 1/4th to 1/3rd of the public and the rest are looking for more security in health care and don’t care about the particulars.
jzap — fair question: the question was about the changes to the health care system proposed by Obama/Dems. So it’s about the plan. Edited the post to clarify…
And Paul, no argument here, though I think the lack of clarity is directly related to Obama’s refusal to lay down his bottom line early in the process.
Mr. Sargent:
“Grand total: Fifty-six percent of Dems either have negative feelings or no strong impression either way of Obama’s signature domestic initiative.
That’s pretty surprising”
No, it’s NOT surprising to anyone who ventures outside of the Moonbat Sweat-Lodge.
In fact, this simply buttresses what i’ve been telling you mouth-breathers about the Single-Payer/Public Option/Nationalized Health.
You haven’t got the numbers that you’ve convinced yourselves that you have.
You can’t even sell this dead duck carcass to your own people.
It stinks, man, it’s dead.
But apparently Moonbat Groupthink dictates that you folks keep throwing this putrescent corpse in the air and insisting that it will somehow magically soar like an eagle, if you chant HARDER and LOUDER.
It IS rather amusing, though, because you’ve become a liability to The One.
I don’t understand how anyone even answered the question. There is no “health care initiative being developed by Obama and Dems.” There are several very different bills working their way through the process on the Hill, and a complete mystery about what the administration really wants – it seems pretty clear they haven’t decided yet. People expressing an opinion on this right now are like the people in ‘94 telling pollsters they supported the Contract with America who couldn’t identify half the items in it.
Talk about Republican distortion! Your’s just beat ‘em!
Obama has clearly said that he prefers a public option, and the majority of plans in the Democratic congress contain a public option.
So how the hell can this poll, measuring reaction to Obama and the Dems health care efforts, be low because liberals want a public option???
Man, you’re really reaching here.
Grand total: Fifty-six percent of Dems either have negative feelings or no strong impression either way of Obama’s signature domestic initiative.
Or, put another way, Seventy-seven percent of Dems either have positive feelings or no strong impression either way of Obama’s signature domestic initiative.
Darius, I think it’s pretty newsworthy that such a large number of Dems has no strong impression either way.
“Fifty-six percent of Dems either have negative feelings or no strong impression either way of Obama’s signature domestic initiative. That’s pretty surprising. It suggests his ongoing refusal to fully commit to a public option continues to damage him with the liberal base.”
Not at all – I’m with Paul W (to an extent) on this. Democrats don’t support the plan because they do not understand what the plan is. Contrary to those who say this is due to Obama not laying down a bottom line, I think it is due to a general lack of understanding of what the public option even is. I certainly disagree with Paul W that a majority of people support the public option, I think a majority of us don’t even understand what the heck that means!
(@Greg: You’ll like this link as you are not only mentioned but there is a reference to chimpanzees and conjuring tricks.)
“Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates released a poll last week that ought to undermine any confidence Democrats might have about enjoying a “mandate” for health reform. The survey of a thousand adults found that, given a choice of three plausible-sounding definitions, only 37 percent of the public could correctly identify what the “public option” is. “That’s nearly the equivalent probability that one would expect if everyone were just guessing.”
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTFiZjJhZDJkNGI3OGNmY2M1NzJkNjhiMjBkNmY5M2U=&w=MA==
It’s absolutely stunning that at this point in the game I have nothing to talk to my neighbors about on this issue. I have nothing to sell them besides a vague preference for the public option. Why? I don’t what the bill is going to be or what my “team” (the Democratic majority) is even fighting for.
The lack of leadership on this is mind-numbing.
Darius, I think it’s pretty newsworthy that such a large number of Dems has no strong impression either way.
Except that it’s unclear whether these Dems have no strong impression because they’re confused by the plans, or simply because they’re neutral towards or otherwise not interested in the issue of health-care reform in general. You’re projecting your own biases onto the poll results.
Doh, accidently posted this in earlier spot.
Certainly the two are tied together, but I think Nate makes a good case for why his speech (which is a one off that doesn’t really have an equal in terms of rallying support) is best placed in the tail end of this battle. These bills were always going to be mired in Congress for a time, maybe it didn’t have to but all the way to September but I believe the WH has been mostly concerned about when to apply this final burst of pressure and turn it into a tipping point (instead of trying to roll the ball uphill all by himself like Clinton did).
This seems like about as good a point as you could ask for since the Finance Committee is wrapping things up and August was pretty much an entrenching in which the GOP won by a slim margin if at all and all that serves to do is make people impatient for SOME sort of action. I just don’t know if it would have speed the process up or made the bill stronger for the President to come out early and demand something from Congress. Bullying and demonising plays into the oppositions hands, nor is it Obama’s style to be the out and out partisan.
Mr. Sargent:
“In fairness, it should be pointed out that a large majority of Dems supported the plan in WaPo’s last poll. The point is that today’s numbers, based on a new line of questioning, suggest that public opinion is far more complex and confused than that even among Dems right now.”
Well whaddayaknow?
The political crisis brewed up for a general groundswell for “Health Care Reform” is breaking like a wave on the mountain of the specifics that would be involved.
It didn’t even make it past the first big sandbar of “Who is going to pay for this, and How?”.
Specific instances were used to generate the General dissatisfaction, and now specifics are the tool by which the general dissatisfaction is neutralized.
It mirrors the long-held and bipartisan gripe about Congress being a sack of *ssholes…that’s a generality.
The solution, which is voting “your” *sshole out of the sack, is where most districts balk…that’s the specifics.
It ain’t all that easy when you get down to sub-assembly and component level.
@sbj
Oh, I don’t think the majority supports the public option. I think 75-66% are completely indifferent to it and care more about better health care no matter what the shape.
How about those Parents who say they are keeping their kids out of school, in order to save them from being exposed to a message that encourages kids to never give up and to stay in school, and study hard. It is the kids, with such nut jobs for parents, that really needed to hear the following message.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/
“Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event
Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009
The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.”
Good golly liam, please just provide a link. That’s incredibly unnecessary.
A large majority of Americans support the public option, Paul W. End of story.
@Paul W: Agreed!
As this ‘debate’ progresses, I am becoming more and more confused about the relation between what Obama is purportedly trying to achieve and the various bills’ specifics.
@josephcast: I take it that you did not read the link I provided? And that you don’t believe the Penn, Schoen and Berland poll?
I support everyone’s right to own a rhesus monkey, that doesn’t make it a top priority of mine. Support does not equal “no public option, no vote” that some on the left are advocating. Nor is the presence of a public option the equivalent of socialism to those who are suspect of reform. Support could be real, but tepid. My point is simply that people want something done more than they know what the specifics of what they want done are.
public opinion is far more complex and confused than that even among Dems right now
Of course! Hasn’t it been pretty clear for a few months now that the one feature above all that characterizes this whole thing so far is obfuscation? The GOP is trotting out black helicopter-worthy stuff, while the Dems. don’t say much of anything that you could characterize as succinct or clear.
@oddjob: “The GOP is trotting out black helicopter-worthy stuff.”
It isn’t the death panel stuff that is confusing me, it is the disconnect between Obama’s goals for h/c reform, and the CBO analyses of what the proposed bills will actually do.
josephcast:
“A large majority of Americans support the public option, Paul W. End of story.”
You are hereby awarded the “Exemplar of Moonbat Group Chanting Commendation Medal”, (Second Class).
As you so obviously fail to read the memos, The issue isn’t about a general and undefined “Health Care Reform”, but the SPECIFICS required to effect this “Reform”.
Catch up, will ya?
Emptyheaded sloganeering gets you where you are today…dead in the water and sinking fast.
Liam:
You WERE standing at attention for this schmaltzy Presidential Platitude Recitation given by Dear Reader, right?
I expect to see the letter of fealty you are writing:
“My Pledge to Help The President”
posted in it’s entirety here.
(Just as soon as you recover consciousness from the side-effects of penning it in your own blood.)
I had a conversation with a neighbor over the weekend who is usually very open-minded and she said she can’t support Obama’s plan because he hasn’t clearly articulated what he wants and what it means for the average American. I think that is a fair criticism although I favor a strong public option if for no other reason than to punish the pirates in the health insurance industry for their rapacious and criminal behavior.