While Reuters buries in late paragraphs the key insight, (a form of misleading but not the most egregious kind), a site like Chicago Tribune's "Swamp" simply acts like a bottom-feeding flounder, having its eyes only on one side of its head to only see one side of things. So we go with Reuters, and give an extensive quote, since all the facts tell a truer story than only some of them:Support for Obama on healthcare slips - poll
WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - Public support for President Barack Obama's handling of healthcare reform, the pillar of his legislative agenda, has fallen below 50 percent for the first time, a Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Monday said.
Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress have run into stiff opposition this month as they try to pass legislation to restructure the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare industry through the creation of a government-run health insurance program.
Republicans and some fiscally conservative Democrats argue the plan, with an estimated cost of more than $1 trillion, could hurt small businesses, add to budget deficits and reduce the quality of medical care for many Americans.
Those concerns may be having an impact on the public, according to the poll, which showed 49 percent of respondents approving of Obama's stand on the issue compared to 57 percent in April.
Those saying they disapproved rose to 44 percent from 29 percent during the same period.
Obama and the White House have gone on the offensive to drum up support for the plan, which would compete with private insurers, provide cover to many of the 46 million uninsured and try to stem runaway medical costs.
With time running out to pass a bill in Congress this year, the battle is shaping up as a major test of Obama's presidency.
Delaying legislation until 2010, a congressional election year, could give Republicans and critics in the healthcare sector more time to galvanize opposition to the plan.
But Obama remains more trusted than Republicans in Congress to do a better job on healthcare reform, the poll showed, with 54 percent of respondents putting their faith in the U.S. leader versus 34 percent in favor of Republican lawmakers.
His overall approval rating also remains high at 59 percent despite some slippage in approval ratings for his handling of the economy, the federal budget deficit and other leading domestic issues, according to the poll.
[italics emphasis added]
And to Gary Gross, my good friend at his GOP blog
letfreedomringblog.com,
who seems to be quite a nice guy despite being a Republican, Gary, your guys' sophistry over the healthcare mess you're collectively responsible for, with the fat cats prospering fatter and fatter, and little guys not covered or paying way more than sensible - that brand of "keep the status quo" simply is not selling because no matter how much you repeat it, and spin it hither and yon, it's a total BS show.
Readers - Go to Gary's site. Read what he says.
Do you buy that brand as in any sense best for the public, folks in the entirety of the USA public, and not merely a mega-cash cow of the elite corporate provider-pharma cabal who built it and do not want to give any of it up despite all the indecency?
If so, if you like it or love it, you probably also voted Bush-Cheney-Pawlenty; and got what you deserved; namely, a gigantic bubble turning to depression before the culprits in the Whitehouse could sneak out of town and blame others; so, good luck on your job, good luck on your retirement, and good luck on your mortgage, and I hope you loved the Wall Street mega-looting job they engineered on the way out too. Holding the economy hostage, threatening to kill it if the ransom was not paid.
The problem, GOP mainstreet voters, by your voting dumb, I also got what you deserved.
That injustice is why I feel a bit harsh about things.
And remember, those GOP guys do all they can to give you flounder eyes. They're happy if you flounder. They're happy if they can hook you.Rush speaks. They want you to hear and believe.
_______UPDATE_________
Apologies to readers, I wrote one thing in obvious haste. The term in the third paragraph or so after the one quote, "elite corporate provider-pharma cabal who built it and do not want to give any of it up" should have read "elite corporate insurer-provider-pharma cabal who built it and do not want to give any of it up." That troika, not a mere pair, has been all over the public like a pickpocket team, and their status quo indecencies is the sole "preexistant condition" that healthcare reform should exclude. In reform, the insurers can be left with extended catastrophic coverage to sell beyond the baseline package for everyone, the providers will adapt just as the physicians adapted from running things to having HMO bosses with MBAs, (I do feel sorry for the physicians on that one), and the big pharma block will have to make due with only conscionable profits. But the Chicken Little fear-mongering from the GOP - well the sky isn't falling and will not. The truth is that simple. The only thing simpler are those buying into the GOP line of talk.
__________FURTHER UPDATE________
While the GOP is useless and wholly untrustworthy at this "healthcare love-in" we're now having, just saying they're worthless and should be written off as such and that it's amazing that still one in three polled people still trust that brand, that is not the end of dissatisfaction and nobody should be let off the hook.
Perhaps a good measure of that disapproval of Obama so far showing up in some polling is that people universally dislike being victimized by bait-and-switch, i.e., consider this comment by an MD to a Physicians for a National Health Program online post:
Imagine presidential candidate Barack Obama telling his audiences during the campaign, “We promise you choice. For most of you already receiving your health insurance through your place on employment, we will provide you with the choice of keeping that insurance plan or paying heavy financial penalties for dropping off the plan, no matter how unhappy you are with it. For a select few of you, we will offer the choice of private plans within an insurance exchange, even if you can’t afford them, and maybe even throw in a public plan that a couple of you may be able to purchase, if you meet our rigid enrollment criteria.”
[...]If reform is to be effective, it must be based on sound policy science. Instead, it is being based on political messaging. It may sound good, but nothing fits together. What a disaster.
[italics added] In that context we have our own bright Betty, per today's online Strib reporting, tap-dancing for the footlights and floodlights, while dodging the main lines of disagreement while tooting the horn loudly over what anyone can recognize as a side issue. Disingenuous? Fiddling while Rome's burning? Loud foot-stomping over a side issue to gain latitude to do dealings over the heart of the issue? And to still be postured to go to folks in district, saying, "I fought the good fight"? You decide. There is this screenshot also showing, for those liking cartoons as much as I do, why there's dissatisfaction among those who knew exactly who McCain-Palin were and represented, and hoped without believing too much that the other guy was not an equal flim-flam:
- from the Hightower Lowdown, here; as always, click to enlarge and read -