The
headline from CNN:
Poll: Most prefer House’s tax on rich over Senate’s
high-end policies
Yes, of course. And by that logic, the following must also be
true:
Most prefer a punch in the stomach over the discomfort
of a poke in the eye.
…people prefer a punch in the stomach?
In truth, people don’t really much care for punches, pokes, or
the Democrats’ health care plan.
As noted by
Phillip Klein and in the New York
Times, if a Scott Brown win takes the Senate out of
further health care contention, Speaker Pelosi might have to
force the Senate’s version of the bill down the House’s
throat.
Well, don’t worry, thanks to some terrific new
polling by CNN, that just means the
public will get the health care bill they “most
prefer.” The Senate version of the health care bills
polled higher than the House version. That’s just the kind of
political cover Reid and Pelosi might need to duck behind in the
coming days. And since the article links back
to…itself for support of its very own
contentions, I guess we have to take the polling pontificators at
face value.
It appears that the Democrats and those carrying
their water want you to think:
1. People like the Democrats’ health care reform.
2. If (perhaps) some people don’t
like the bill, at least they don’t really,
really, really
not like it.
3. Of all the vast hordes who love health care reform, most are
quite fond of the House version.
4. If a Brown win stops the Senate version, Congress will go with
the version of the bill that the people “prefer.”
5. …not very much.
The fine print at the bottom of the article gets to the only
relevant point — the health care bill is very unpopular:
According to the survey, only 4 in 10 support the health
care bills passed by the House and Senate,
with 57 percent opposed.…The poll
also indicates that 28 percent say they would
be angry if health care legislation passed,
with another 23 percent suggesting
they’d be displeased.
So, with 6 in 10 opposing the bills, neither version is actually
“preferred.” It seems most people would feel like they’d been
punched or poked if it passed — not happy. At
least their displeasure is only
“suggested.” What a polite group of
participants!
More:
“Despite the controversy that has surrounded that legislation
since last summer’s contentious town hall meetings, most
Americans don’t seem to have an extreme position on health
care.…”
Despite that whole shooting thing, Mrs. Lincoln…
No, they’re just angry, displeased, marching on the National
Mall, packing town hall meetings, turning back elections in New
York, Virginia, and turning Massachusetts on its head. But that’s
nothing you’d call extreme: not if you were the party that reads
all the current political trade winds wrong.
A mere 52.9 percent voted for a new direction in 2008. Not
extreme numbers but certainly extreme positions. Most Americans
wanted anything to do with George W. Bush — out.
I think anger and displeasure was certainly present in November
of 2008. We didn’t need polls to tell us that.
Similarly, we don’t need polls to tell us that we’re witnessing
some inconsequential malaise when roughly 60 percent of the
country is taking a referendum back from their recently elected
leader. That is extreme.
Who could possibly read so little out of so much? — a spiraling
political party and desperate political scientists, perhaps.
As Mr. Keating Holland, CNN-poll-diviner extraordinaire
concludes: “This may explain
why the Democrats are going full-steam ahead on health care
despite majority opposition to their bills.”
(Emphasis mine).
If by “this” he means a willful indifference to
the public outcry against the Democrats’ agenda, he’s 100 percent
right.
And “this” may also explain why the Democrats are
headed for real trouble in November.
