US Public Souring Slowly on ObamaCare

We're here to help...!?!

Karl Rove has an article on the Tuesday race in upstate NY which the lamestream media has stridently proclaimed as a huge defeat for the Ryan Budget Plan to make Medicare a safely-funded healthcare mechanism. Rove points out that Corwin ran a poorly-planned and funded race which turned off a lot of voters because of a highly-publicized confrontation in a parking lot between Corwin's campaign chief and the mentally-disturbed and mendacious "Tea Party candidate" who had previously run THREE TIMES AS A DEMOCRAT in this CD. Rove's own polling outfit found that Hochul's eventually victorious campaign had made much traction with totally dishonest and prevaricating ads that Corwin had voted against Medicare in the past and that the Ryan budget was out to destroy the government health plan, but the election was characterized by indifferent GOP voters accustomed to winning and a DNC-funded high turnout by Dem diehards.

The subsequent brouhaha stems from the DNC's desire to stigmatize the Ryan budget as so unpopular in the grassroot hinterlands that the Republicans will be beaten in 2012 due to attrition by scared independents and elderly worried about their declining years' healthcare programs. But let's look more closely at the grassroot trend toward ObamaCare's loss of support over the last year:

Gallup shows the following trend lines on ObamaCare:

PRINCETON, NJ -- One year after President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, Americans are divided on its passage, with 46% saying it was a good thing and 44% saying it was a bad thing. Most Americans are skeptical that the law will improve medical care in the U.S. or their own personal medical care.

The current level of support for the bill, based on a Gallup poll conducted March 18-19, 2011, generally mirrors what Gallup found in polling conducted a year ago, just before President Obama signed the bill into law. At that point, in response to a slightly different question, 49% said the law was a good thing, while 40% said it was a bad thing. Other updates asked over the last year show a similar divide. [ed's note: Almost the same number a year later say that ObamaCare is a bad thing as say it is "good," a marked CHANGE from the 49"good"-40% "bad" of a year ago.]

More Americans See the Law Making Things "Worse" Rather Than "Better"

Well less than half of Americans believe the law will make medical care better either for the United States as a whole, or for them personally. In both regards, more believe the law will make things worse rather than better.

Opinions on the impact of the healthcare law on medical care in the U.S. are divided in similar fashion to Americans' overall reactions to the bill: 39% say it will improve medical care in the United States, while 44% say it will make it worse. Small percentages say the law won't change anything or offer no opinion. These responses are roughly similar to attitudes seen in July 2009, as the outlines of the law were just coming into place.

Americans are less positive about the impact of the healthcare reform law on their own medical care. Twenty-five percent say the law will improve their medical care, 39% say it will worsen it, and 31% say it will not make any difference. These results are also similar to those found in July 2009.
Politics Shapes Views of Healthcare Law
Democrats and Republicans have totally different views of the healthcare law, as has consistently been the case since Gallup began measuring attitudes toward it. The law was proposed by a Democratic president, and passed by a Democratic-controlled House and Senate over the vehement objections of most Republicans in Congress. Republicans have also continued to criticize the bill since its passage, and Republican leaders in Congress are now pursuing efforts to prevent many of the bill's provisions from taking effect.

Almost 8 in 10 Democrats say the law's passage was a good thing, while more than 7 in 10 Republicans say its passage was a bad thing. Independents tilt toward saying passage was a bad thing. Reactions to the impact of the law on medical care in the U.S. are similarly divided.

Yesterday's Senate Vote on the Ryan Plan & ObamaCare illustrates that 47 more senators like the Ryan Plan than the Obama Budget!!!

Another 2011 Gallup Poll
notes that 46% favor repealing the ObamaCare Law while 40% want it retained. The Gallup headline dishonestly reads:

"Americans do not strongly endorse the new Republican House majority's efforts to repeal the landmark healthcare legislation passed last year."

This is usual for the highly-partisan Democratic-leaning Gallup Organization, which misrepresents and badly characterizes any poll result that seems to favor the GOP.
UPDATE Charlie Cook has the last word on this election in upstate NY:

This last week has seen a potpourri of interesting political developments on the presidential, senatorial, and congressional election front.
In my not-so-humble opinion, the least important were several polls showing that next Tuesday’s three-way special election in New York’s 26th Congressional District was becoming very competitive, with multiple entities for each major party spending freely. To be honest, I take a perverse pleasure in watching a multitude of well-intentioned political observers weigh in on the “great significance” of this upstate House race to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of GOP Rep. Chris Lee.
In addition to other things, I have heard them talk about what it portends for the Medicare issue and the 2012 elections for the House nationwide.
It’s all nonsense.
For those who live outside the boundaries of the 26th District, the significance is this: If Democrats capture the seat, they will need a net gain of 24 seats to capture a majority and if Republicans hold the seat, Democrats will still need 25 seats. That’s it. Any grander conclusions are specious.
The vast majority of congressional elections are effectively fought between one Democrat, one Republican and perhaps a mishmash of unknown independent and third-party candidates that rarely make a difference in the outcome of the election.
In this Republican-leaning 26th District fight, there is one Democrat, one Republican and, oh, yes, a wealthy, abortion-rights, economic protectionist, former Republican, former Democrat, current tea partier, who ran for Congress in 2004, 2006 and 2008—spending a total of $5.2 million of his own money—and has already spent at least another $1.7 million in this race for Congress.
If anyone can find a race next year with a similar configuration, be my guest and apply the “lessons learned” from this race to that one. But implying that the outcome of this race portends anything about any conventional race next year amounts to cheap spin and drive-by “analysis” of the most superficial kind, which is sadly becoming all too prevalent in Washington. There are a lot of folks in D.C. who would be well-served switching to decaf.

Another observer noted that the upstate race last year in NY23 had also been touted as a harbinger of impending GOP doom when a skanky RINO skated by & finally a Demonrat prevailed---but 63 House seats were gained & so much for that mess of porridge. Ditto for the Djou race in Hawaii, another meaningless bellwether.