Thus far, the coordinated effort by Democrats to portray Obamacare critics as un-American angry Astroturf mobsters who are tools of the insurance industry engaging in political terrorism, has not reaped dividends. While it’s still early, the polling evidence we have thus far suggests that demonizing the opposition has not boosted support for Obama or Democratic health care proposals. When the White House and Democrats launched their attacks on protesters early last week, Obama’s approval rating stood at 55 percent in the Gallup daily tracking poll, with 38 percent disapproval. In today’s poll, his approval is back down to 53 percent, while his disapproval is at 40 percent — even though the intervening period brought a better than expected unemployment report. More specifically, Gallup found his approval rating on health care has barely budged from three weeks ago, with 43 percent now approving and 49 percent disapproving (compared with 44 percent and 50 percent, respectively, three weeks ago). Meanwhile, Rasmussen found that support for health care legislation proposed by Obama and Democrats has dropped 6 points in the past two weeks, to 42 percent, while a 53 percent majority now oppose.
Keep in mind that with legislation behind schedule in Congress, August was supposed to be a month for Obama and Democrats to regain the momentum and build public support for what they’re trying to do going into fall. We still have a long way to go, but based on what we have to go on thus far, it doesn’t seem that attacking their opponents has helped win over any skeptics.