Poll: Huge Majority Of Mainers Wants Snowe To Break Ranks With GOP
With Olympia Snowe pondering whether to break ranks with the GOP and support a health care compromise, the new Democracy Corps poll contains a somewhat relevant finding: A huge majority of her consituents want her to do just that!
Mainers think Republicans aren’t serious about reform and don’t care about bipartisanship for its own sake, the poll finds. Check out these numbers:
* By 50 to 39 percent, voters in Maine believe Republicans in Congress “aren’t being constructive and just want Obama to fail” rather than that they “are playing a constructive role in improving a health care reform bill.”
* By 62 to 29 percent, Mainers believe President Obama “has made an effort to reach out to Republicans on health care reform” rather than that he “has ignored Republicans’ ideas on health care reform.”
* And by 64 to 28 percent, they feel Senator Snowe “should vote for the health care bill if she thinks it’s a good bill even if she is the only Republican who supports it” rather than that she “should only vote for the health care bill if it is a bipartisan bill that other Republicans are willing to support.”
This is coming from a Dem firm, admittedly, but the questions seem well-framed, and these are striking numbers.
Snowe has been making mildly critical public statements about the GOP that seem designed to pave the way for an eventual break with the party on health care. Seems like the sentiments of her own constituents give her plenty of cover to make that break, too.
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Senator Snowe vote the Republican party line, yesterday.
I think it is time to stop ceding our power to her.
We have sixty Democrats. Let us crack the whip, and start to enforce party discipline.
When Max Baucus is voting with the Republicians, that would not give his bill a single vote, then what message does Senator Snowe take away. Why should she buck her party, when Baucus/Lincoln/Konrad are all voting with her party, and against their fellow Democrats.
She has to be thinking; why on earth would I stick my neck out, and upset my own party, for this trio of Democratic weaklings!
Perhaps I’m missing something but hasn’t it been obvious for some time that Snowe is going to support the Baucus bill? I thought that had been the goal of the gang of six all along? So long as the Dems don’t muck it up in markup, and so long as the cmte accepts a few more Repub changes, then she will do what she always does – give the Dems cover!
Off topic (again, sorry) but this one is important for a number of reasons… http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/coup-columnist-perrys-long-history-with-newsmax.php?ref=fpa
yeah, Bernie, I’ve been following that stuff over there. Interesting.
Bernie and Greg
Isn’t it a little late for damage control? Perry’s column is in cyberspace now for anyone to read. What I want to know is if anyone, and who they are, took Perrry seriously. I know he was serious, but is there anyone in the normal world of politics who would consider this anything other than more anti-Obama propaganda from the right?
Any links of quoting from the article by “legitimate” media outlets or political operators.
>>>What I want to know is if anyone, and who they are, took Perrry seriously.<<<
Newsmax is one of the biggest conservative websites out there.
The Alexa Traffic Rank: 2,461
Traffic Rank in US: 610
Online since 1998
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/newsmax.com
To give you an idea of what that means in real terms, here are the rankings for TPM:
Alexa Traffic Rank: 5,374
Traffic Rank in US: 1,135
@Bernie
Has Newsmax refuted the claim, about the coup being in the works?
It is an astonishing claim. The guy says that the military are actually planning to overthrow civilian rule.
So, the next question is; what is their fall back plan, if President Obama does not agree to being just a speech making figure head, with no real executive powers. Are they going to put him on a plane and ship him out to Honduras?
The Right Wingers have gone Bananas, and are lusting for their own Banana Republic.
So what will the Military do, when millions of us boycott every thing, and bring the entire country to a stand still.
“To give you an idea of what that means in real terms, here are the rankings for TPM:
Alexa Traffic Rank: 5,374
Traffic Rank in US: 1,135″
Yikes.
It’s going to be a fvcking miracle if we make it through the next couple of years without incident.
This went way beyond irresponsible a long time ago and it just keeps getting worse.
So, what ever happened to:
The investigation into the hanging in Kentucky?
The investigation into the Face Book poll, on President Obama?
The investigation into the anthrax killings? They happened after 9/11, and have not be solved. Something those who keep claiming that going to war has made us safe, always fail to mention.
Here’s a few more quotes of comments on the Perry article. Nothing from Bachman or Trent “Call Obama an enemey of humanity” Franks yet. Thank God.
“On the same day conservative talk-radio host Jim Quinn directly addressed U.S. troops, telling them that Obama is “gonna get you killed.”
“Media Matters points out that the appeals to the military follow a wave of rhetoric from the right suggesting that civilian violence against the government might be justified. Chuck Norris has asked if people are ready for “a second American Revolution.” RedState’s Erick Erickson has asked, “At what point do the people … march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp?” Radio host Michael Savage declared recently that “we’re going to have a revolution in this country.”
All are definitely fringe right?
Liam = the investigation into the hanging is ongoing.
New details were reported yesterday over at TPM.
“All are definitely fringe right?”
This scares the s**t out of me.
expecting snowejob to to the right thing is
a fool’s errnnd. she is owned by Wellpoint.
will she do what the people of maine want?
it is absolutely certain the matter is doubtful
Liam – did you know that his federal ID was taped to his forehead?
If these numbers are anywhere close to accurate, Snowe has an obligation to her constituents to vote in the direction that the majority of them favor, for the health care reforms. Sticking to party lines and angering those who voted you in is a pretty good way to shorten one’s political career. I doubt that she would given the leanings of many of her actions, but you never know what pressure the party might exert.
Greg,
Don’t forget this extremely important finding from that poll:
“Finally, it is clear that Mainers overwhelmingly support a government sponsored non-profit health insurance option, 63 to 27 percent. And they support this option from the start significantly more strongly than they support a “trigger” (52 to 34 percent) that would create the government sponsored non-profit health insurance option only if private health insurance companies do not make affordable coverage available within several years.”
These are also Susan Collins’s constituents. She should also be subject to pressure.
Greg/Anyone else:
Of all of these polls that you guys cite showing “overwhelming” support for a public option, do any of them show how much more supporters are willing to pay in taxes in order to support such a thing?
Afterall, they must be willing to pay for it, if they so overwhelmingly support it, right? Any info on that?
Here you go Scott C
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-HealthcareReform/idUSTRE58T0MY20090930
Imsinca,
That article doesn’t help your cause very much if you read it carefully. It amounts to: “Most people would be willing to pay for unicorn rides, if there were unicorns, but most people don’t think there are.”
Scott,
Of course not, someone else is always supposed to pay for liberalism.
“Of course not, someone else is always supposed to pay for liberalism.”
[rolls eyes]
Yeah, I’m sure someone who spends most of the working day online is waaaaay up there in the high tax brackets.
“Yeah, I’m sure someone who spends most of the working day online is waaaaay up there in the high tax brackets.”
Actually, yeah, pretty darned high.
qb
I didn’t comment on the poll. Scott C asked for a poll asking if we were willing to pay extra taxes to provide health care reform. I gave him one.
One man’s unicorn is another man’s plow horse.
“The survey period also followed a summer of rancorous debate in Washington and angry exchanges between healthcare reform advocates and adversaries at political town hall meetings across the country.
The survey showed that 76 percent of those polled believe Americans deserve the best healthcare. But only 43 percent said they actually receive it.
Readiness to pay for effective reform crossed party lines, with 78 percent of Democrats willing to accept higher taxes, as well as 64 percent of independents and 48 percent of Republicans.”
qb-
Right now the middle and lower classes are paying for quite alot-like losing their jobs, no healthcare, etc. Now, who was trying to feather their nests while rolling back regulation, outsourcing jobs to wherever,…?
If you haven’t noticed, the gap between rich and poor has increased substantially over the last decade, so don’t tell all the folks looking for jobs everyday here at my publicly-financed library that they aren’t paying.
Damn right someone’s got to pay, but they sure as hell don’t have the money. But they have paid. Too bad you only see $ signs.
Imsinca,
Fair enough, although the excerpt you quote is of course quite an incomplete picture of the poll, which overall suggests people willing to pay if were worthwhile but not believing it is worthwhile. A poll that is largely a meaningless tautology.
Chuck,
Not sure what you mean by me seeing only $. Money is pretty central to the debate. Liberals want the government to collect and redistribute it.
Your argument is long on populist passion but lacking in logic. I’ve been unemployed and penniless and without prospects, but I didn’t imagine that “the rich” somehow got rich from my being unemployed and should be “soaked” on my behalf.
But it’s a fact that the liberal welfare state is built upon resentment and redistribution, just as Obama himself has illustrated and your post confirms.
Isn’t ironic that the repuglicans are close to extinction as they “evolve” ? Karma is a sweet beetch indeed.
qb-
What the hell is wrong with wealth distribution? One would think those were the two dirtiest words in the English language.
“Built on resentment”? Gimme a break. Built on a recognition that there has to be some kind of safety net and there needs to be publicly funded entities that benefit us all.
Like someone said (or I read recently) in 50 years what passes for a health care “system” right now will be seen as barbaric and pathetic. Thank god the Democrats have the cojones to actually tackle that problem. You honestly think *anything* would be happening if the GOP were in charge? Look where a *lack* of reform has got us.
The only thing I resent is the selfishness of some who put profit over lives. Call me a passionate populist-sounds damn GOOD to me!
I saw something about that on TV last night.