Obama Losing Dems Support Over Health Care Reform? Don't Believe It!

[babsbunny]

http://fwix.com/columbus/share/88d02f1d2c/obama_losing_dems_support_over_health_care_reform_dont_believe_it

By Dave Harding, ProgressOhio - Jan 5th, 2010 at 3:51 pm EST

Does President Obama have a problem with his political base?

That conclusion seems inescapable in recent weeks, as prominent liberal voices have expressed their unhappiness with the president, especially in regards to compromises in the health care reform legislation passed last month in the Senate. Howard Dean, for one, said he would prefer to "kill the Senate bill" and start over, as did groups like MoveOn.org and prominent progressive bloggers like Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake and Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos.

Don't Believe It!

[slipslidingaway]

1. Obama had a perfect opportunity to move towards a national HC system ...

instead this bill will give private insurance companies the customers they stand to lose when the boomers retire.

Insurance companies won.

[jpak]

2. Ouch!

:evilgrin:

[Better Today]

3. Since I am one whose not feeling supportive of the president regarding

Health Care Reform, I will believe it. If it had just been HC(read insurance)R, perhaps, but it's so much more, and no for me it isn't the Afghanistan escalation, except in the idea that we can spend for wars but not HCR, and the wealthy are still not paying their share to pay those expenses that their lobbyists and RW congresscritters/presidents have spent on war. There is however, DADT, torture is still legal, no one being held responsible for Bush's crimes, and no financial reforms, no help for Main Street....

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Well, he damned well ought to be losing support over it.

[MNDemNY]

7. He is.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. Then I don't understand what the article means by this...

"The truth as show by recent Gallup Polling is that Obama is down 1% with Liberal Democrats and 2% with Moderate and Conservative Democrats since his high rankings on Inauguration Day.

And similiarly, when you read or hear all the "negatives" surrounding health care reform in the corporate media or on the blogs . . . .

Don't Believe It!"

[MNDemNY]

9. I don't know about you but...

If I am polled by a national poll, I will give responses that shed the best light on the Democratic Party, even if I have to lie. I know many more Democrats who do the same. I save my venom for when I am among friends, like here.

[Hello_Kitty]

20. Same here.

I'm not happy with a lot of things Obama and the Dems are doing but if polled I would be in the "approve" column.

[Jackpine Radical]

14. Somebody oughtta teach those dorks how to read a graph.

There are clear downward trends in all the graphs. A moving average would show it. This is about as accurate as the infamous, cherry-picked "downward trend" in temperatures over the last decade.

[2 Much Tribulation]

15. Too many people are now "liberal" but not "Democrat" thus % is down only 1% n/t

[FiveGoodMen]

19. Hmm. That's a possibility.

[mmonk]

5. I didn't know it was all about him.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Oh, I don't.

[gleaner]

10. I do believe it .....

It was how he first started losing my support. Then add the huge escalation in Afghanistan, his "secret" wars in Yemen and Pakistan, troops still in Iraq, his pro torture and anti Habeas Corpus stance and going to court to cement torture and unlawful detention and so much more.

Then there is the tanking of the economy, lack of transparency in his administration, lack of jobs for people in the US and basically selling out every other campaign promise he made, but we're not supposed to think the base has a problem with him? Nonsense. I believe it when people tell me how unhappy they are with him. I see the many polls run by newspapers, magazines and websites and I can't dismiss all of them. He is the worst possible president for this time in our country's life, and he will not get any better.

I don't know how anyone manages to look around and not see what he is doing and the effect it is having. It must take a lot of effort.

[sabrina 1]

11. Is everything about polls now for Democrats?

Bush had great poll numbers also in his first four or five years, yet everything he did was bad for this country.

Talking to people in Real Life, it's obvious that most people have no clue what is in this bill but the one thing that shocks them is the fact that they will be forced to buy insurance under penalty of law. Almost everyone I have talked to is shocked by this, as it is such an undemocratic idea. When the public in general understands more about this bill, they will not support it. The media doesn't talk about this aspect of the bill, nor the fact that the rich and the poor will still have different quality care.

This is a Republican idea. Romney sold it appealing to the worst instincts of the Republican base that those worthless lazy bums who refused to buy their own insurance, were a burden on everyone else. They loved the fact that the law would force them to pay up.

Following the link, I see that Blackwell also promoted this system when running for Governor of Ohio. Gov. Strickland opposed it, at least back then:

http://fwix.com/columbus/share/88d02f1d2c/obama_losing_dems_support_over_health_care_reform_dont_believe_it

Blackwell's health plan gets boost from Romney

Blackwell said many of the 1.3 million Ohioans now without insurance are people in their twenties who are no longer covered by their parents' plans. Part of his proposal would increase the age when children must leave their parents' plans from 21 to 29.

Democrat Ted Strickland has criticized the plan, saying Blackwell is unable to say what it would cost families who are considered to be among the "working poor" to pay for private health insurance. Strickland's plan would take about 300,000 off the rolls of the uninsured with subsidies.

Romney falsely claimed in that article, that his plan had covered all residents of Mass. Last I checked, at least half a million were still not covered, and as predicted, the cost of premiums have risen every years, along with the cost of Fines.

I remember when most progressives, including Obama, opposed such a system. What happened?

[rateyes]

12. He's lost my support. If he signs this giveaway to the insurance companies,

he can forget about getting my help, or vote. He had political capital out the wazoo and was too afraid to spend it, IMO.

[FiveGoodMen]

13. "and was too afraid to spend it"

I think he has spent it.

He said himself that this bill has 95% of what he wanted.

Time to stop thinking of Obama as a good man fighting an uphill battle.

[leftstreet]

16. He did spend his political capital - just not in the way people hoped he would

His political capital has been cover for a corporate agenda

No Republican could have gotten away with any of this stuff.

[JFN1]

17. Obama is challenging my ability to continue supporting him

I want to - badly. But he's got to start living the Democratic agenda, no matter the political costs. He once said if he had to be a one term president in order to clean up the problems he faced as president, he was willing to do so.

Seems like this was just another empty promise, because he sure is pandering to the Republicans like he needs them...

[TheKentuckian]

18. It's a 100% Democratic bill that nary a solitary Democrat can do more than stomach

It sure as hell ain't helping. I know its pissing me off to a huge degree and I'm probably on many an ignore list for being a "senseless bot".

I mean we all at least recognize that our party gets all the heat on this one and nearly none of us in the party actually like it.

[sendero]

21. That's because most Americans..

... don't have a clue what is in this bill. Wait a while.