Checking In On ObamaKennedyDeathCare

Now that a few days have passed since President Obama's speech on health care, how do things look?

Well, for starters, he did get a temporary boost in the polls...but it's over now, just six days later:

Following President Obama’s speech to Congress last week, support for his health care reform plan increased steadily to a peak of 51% yesterday. However, the bounce appears to be over. The latest daily tracking shows that support has fallen all the way back to pre-speech levels.

Forty-five percent (45%) of all voters nationwide now favor the plan while 52% are opposed. A week ago, 44% supported the proposal and 53% were opposed…

The latest figures show that 23% Strongly Favor the plan and 41% are Strongly Opposed. In late August, 23% were strongly in favor of the plan and 43% were strongly opposed.

USA Today agrees that there was no net change in their overall numbers:

The president’s speech apparently failed to galvanize public opinion in the way the White House had hoped. While it drew a national television audience estimated by Nielsen at more than 32 million people, there’s little evidence in the survey that it changed minds.

Obama’s approval rating is 54%, the same as in two USA TODAY polls in August; 43% disapprove, the highest of his presidency.

So does Gallup:

Gallup's poll of adults, which, to be a broken record, skews strongly in favor of liberals/Democrats, shows a "steep climb" for Obama, with the country evenly divided (statistically) with 50% urging their Congressman to support the plan and 47% urging their Congressman to vote against it.

Do a small amount of mental adjustment on that adults figure and you pretty much have Rasmussen's figure for likely voters.

So does even the WashPo/ABC poll:

Our new ABC News/Washington Post poll out this morning shows that the President’s joint session speech may have stopped his summer slide, but it doesn’t appear to have been the “game-changer” Democrats were hoping for.

No doubt Obama’s passionate presentation energized his partisans and began to unify Congressional Democrats, but this poll is the best evidence yet of where the public stands – and it demonstrates how difficult it will be for Obama to shape the debate and overcome skepticism about his plan.

Bottom line: right now, voters are almost exactly where they were before the speech.

Interestingly, even though these liberal-leaning polls are deliberately skewed to favor Obama (hit the links for the details), they are still showing no movement from previous low levels of support.

Translation: the American people are winning.

And that fact is reflected in Congress by a growing reluctance to commit political suicide. Right now, Obama doesn't have the votes to pass ObamaKennedyDeathCare in the House:

In a nutshell, the Democrats lack enough moderates to pass H.R. 3200 with the government option and if they ditch the government option, the Democrats would lack enough liberals to pass it. Sucks to be them.

And that's good news for the rest of us who will be forced to live with whatever bill those morons pass.

Here are a few more stories of interest...

Most Americans think AP is 'confused' on ObamaCare

Not just AP and not just ObamaCare, either; only 29% of Americans think that the media "generally" gets its facts right. That's their lowest mark since such questions were asked, starting in 1985.

SAN FRANCISCO – The news media's credibility is sagging along with its revenue.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans think the news stories they read, hear and watch are frequently inaccurate, according to a poll released Sunday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press...

That's probably because the media lacks the will or ability to think independently nowadays, instead simply repeating ad nauseum whatever Barack Obama wants them to say. Problem is, Obama seems to be confused himself:

Last week, on the night of Obama's speech to the joint session, I [Mary Katharine Ham] posted this:

Obama, then:

First, no matter what you've heard, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor under the reform proposals that we've put forward. If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep it. If your employer provides you health insurance on the job, nobody is talking about messing with that.

Obama, now:

First, if you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, Medicare, Medicaid, or the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have. Let me repeat this: nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.

Jennifer Rubin notes Obama changed his mind once again when speaking Saturday:

Now, I’ve also said that one of the options in the insurance exchange, one of the options — most of the folks who are going to be offering insurance through the exchange are going to be private insurers — Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, all these. Well, I think one of the options should be a public insurance option. (Applause.) Now let me be clear. Let me be clear. Let me be clear: It would only be an option. Nobody would be forced to choose it. No one with insurance would be affected by it. But what it would do is, it would provide more choice and more competition. (Applause.) It would keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable, to treat their customers better.

Hey, AP...a little thought can go a long way, and so can a little bit of fact-checking. You might want to give it a try sometime.


Doctors don't support ObamaCare

Investor’s Business Daily reports on the results of its heart-stopping poll of doctors:

Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found.

The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors’ own lobby — the powerful American Medical Association — both of which suggest the medical profession is behind the proposed overhaul.

It also calls into question whether an overhaul is even doable; 72% of the doctors polled disagree with the administration’s claim that the government can cover 47 million more people with better-quality care at lower cost.

But hey, who knows better, the doctors or the AMA?

One last video because it's a doozy. Remember that used up line that Obama keeps offering that people won't be required to change their doctor or their plan? Hm, funny thing about requirements...

Keep in mind the biggest of those requirements: you will eventually be required to join up. Oh, and this one: Congress is not required to participate in the bill they pass into law.

There's my two cents.


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