Poll: Obama's Clout on Health Care Eroding But Still Trusted More Than Republicans

New York Times:

President Obama's ability to shape the debate on health care appears to be eroding as opponents aggressively portray the effort as a government-takeover that could limit Americans' ability to choose their doctor and course of treatment, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[tompoe]

Well, terrific! Two members of the corporate media report yet more unverifiable evidence under the guise of truth by corporate survey. If they say it, it must be true, as it was with WMD.

[ldmason45]

bo and the dems have no one to blame for the distrust of a lot of Americans. After that sham porkulus and cap-n-tax bill, I too question their sanity to make any decision much less one about my health care.These bills would never have been passed if the taxpayers had been aware of what was in them. Porkulus was a campaign pay-back scheme for bo and congress under the guise of helping the rising unemployment rate. Cap-n-tax was even worse. This was not in the interest of Americans citizens and will destroy business, raise everyone's ulilitiy bills and cost millions of jobs. bo has screamed, "the sky is falling" so often that no one even bothers to look up anymore. You know, "a crises is too good to waste". The problem is people are catching on.

[uvymopka]

Again, most everything our beloved president is saying about health care is not true. 'Retool'? That's just a not-so-fancy word for 'switching the lies'.

[blico]

How about this - Let all existing ins co. and new ones that might pop up handle the everyday maladies with say a cap of 50K. Let the govt. handle the major catastrophies. Your premiums would be lower because ins co. wouldn't be facing liabilities of millions for a single patient.
Malpractice awards would come out of a govt plan that is funded by possibly selling oil that we have billions of barrels.

[oldngrumpy]

That was the principle behind Medicare. We ended up with a very expensive government program and insurance premiums never dropped a dime, in spite of the most expensive customers being covered by the government. Only competition will bring down costs. That's why the public option is a must.

[beartrack]

The President's biggest mistake has been assuming that he would be dealing with honorable men, and women, in congress. Instead he is facing a system so controlled by the special interests that no real progress can be made with these people. The President doesn't have the cash to compete. We the people, have to either force these people to get with it, or run them out.

[ObamacratInCA]

It's time to put these negotiations on C-Span, so we can see these people with robust government healthcare for themselves and their loved ones, fight to the death against robust government healthcare for us.

[jimmy 7591]

America's biggest mistake has been assuming they would be dealing with an honorable man.
WE the people need need to force him to live up to his campaign promises, or get him out.

[ObamacratInCA]

I don't think getting rid of President Obama, the one guy who has brought the country the closest to healthcare reform in 60 years, is the only solution.

Congress needs to earn its pay and get this done right, well and quickly.

[robbep]

I wld agree with you on this but for one point, Obama does not really want to change the system he wants to tweak it. His administration has fallen for the GOP trap and put the healthcare issue in the costs vs defecit arena and his message falls flat when you start talking about trillions and bending the curve. With the rate of jobs being lossed in this country a theme of protecting you if you lose your job wld have gained him some ground. Discussing technical cost curves over complicates his message and loses the audience. Also, Obama's heart is not into making real changes in the system and it shows when he is out on the stump. He reminds me of a salesperson who does not know or have used the product he is selling and this is why he cant sell it to us. Since he does not want to fight for real change and wld eagerly compromise away real reform get a bill signed he does not have the conviction necessary to seal the deal. We progressives need to make sure that he is not allowed to sign a watered down bill that rewards the insurance industry in order to look like he has done something.

[sloreader]

This voter remains 100% behind President Obama, come hell or high water! It's easy to take pot shots when you are not in the hot seat. It's even easier for elected officials to make our political system increasingly dysfunctional if they choose to do so.

[Grannysue]

If he's slipped then blame it on the media, I do, if you flip on CNN, which I try not to, or any other so called "news" show they have a bunch of GOPERS talking down the health care bill, people telling the elderly that if this health care bill passes it will :"allow all the ill and elderly to be killed off", or it will take away your insurance, your doctor, your home will be taken away and anything else they can think up.
Of course I don't included the FAUX channel in this because everything they report is a lie or crap.
I would say MSNBC has had really the most factual information on their reporting of the plans, but even they have to start the programs out with some big scary headline like "Is this going to take you away from your Doctor?" I mean if the media doesn't have a story then they make one up. They along with the Dogs and GOPERS and Insurance company pigs will do everything in their power to kill Healthcare reform, why? Because then it will really be news, right?

[Chernynkaya]

There was nothing in that article that revealed the actual poll- no questions asked, no respondents listed.
If a pollster had called me, and asked if I was happy with Obama's handling of health care, I would have responded negatively- BUT NOT BECAUSE I'M A REPUBLICAN OR BLUE DOG- but because he is not pushing hard enough for a strong public option.

How do we know why his numbers are slipping (if the really are)? Maybe it's because he isn't asking for single payer, or a stronger public option, or because he won't say he'll veto anything without those.

[judyannh]

look, Obama should not pay attention to these polls, don't know what folks they are polling!

keep the fight with healthcare and do the right thing!

[starkcr31]

So when his poll numbers were off the charts they were great but now that they're in the tank they're meaningless. Interesting.

[Dustee]

The President polls have slipped,(even though he polls 2-3 times higher then any 'publicon) but he's still more trusted then the 'publicons. And what the tRollers need to know/remember is that two thirds of Americans don't even want to see "the quitta from wasilla" become potus.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/07/29/wsjnbc-poll-would-you-like-to-see-palin-as-president-someday/

[Blufftonian]

The difference is the trend. One's numbers are descending, the others' ascending.

When Bush II's number were in the low 50s, the Dems' response was attack, attack, attack. Can't blame the Reps for doing the same.

[k6007]

26% is "ascending"?
That's good, keep playing with shiny objects, and, let the rest of us try and fix the country.

[k6007]

When will dems learn you have to kneecap them out of the starting gate. They always allow repubs/MSM to muddle the message, leaving the public confused by their lies. Fact:

49 percent said they supported fundamental changes, and 33 percent said the health care system needed to be completely rebuilt.

80 percent said they were concerned that the percentage of Americans without health care would continue to rise if congress did not act.

59 percent said that he was making an effort to work with congressional republicans, while just 33 percent said republicans were trying to work with him on the issue.

By 55 percent to 26 percent, respondents said mr. obama had better ideas about how to change health care than republicans in congress did.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/us/politics/30poll.html?_r=1&hp

[Chernynkaya]

I agree. I am frustrated by the Dems inability to ever play the game the way the Republicans do. I find the Republican playbook disgusting but effective, and when there is so much at stake, I want the Dems to fight fire with fire. I am tired of belonging to the wimpy Party.

[k6007]

Hear, hear.

[sloreader]

The bludgeon is mightier than the scalpel when it comes to health care reform in particular.

[ObamacratInCA]

There's a corporate party and a people's party within the Democratic party. President Obama always implied that his fight in Washington wasn't exclusively against the Republicans. It was against the status quo. He expected this resistance. It remains to be seen how he is going to thwart it. It's time for the Rock Obama.

[oldngrumpy]

From the article: "By 55 percent to 26 percent, respondents said Mr. Obama had better ideas about how to change health care than Republicans in Congress did. "

Obama entered this debate with more than twice the approval rating of congress. In spite of this, he deferred the process to Pelosi and Reid. If he doesn't get a firm grasp on the structure of the plan by setting some demands in stone and articulating them to the voters we can expect to wait until the next catastrophic failure of the conservatives to get affordable and universal health care. If Dems can't get the job done with the overwhelming advantage they now enjoy one must seriously question their ability to govern cohesively. We seem to be one party short of a two party system.

[Chernynkaya]

Yep.

[Jazzman323]

Obama is only 6 months i to his term. He is headed to Bush-like poll njmbers. It is just a matter of time

[k6007]

If only the republicans could get their approval ratings as high as bush's when he left office, huh?

[sloreader]

You are missing a chord JM.

[quantumspin]

Obama is more pro-business (banks, corporations, Big Health Care) than a Republican.
Obama is anti-working and retired American, that much is very clear. He's very very slick about it of course, but there's a big difference between he says on the hustings (including in Raleigh yesterday) and what he ends up supporting or going along with when he's in DC.

The GOP has him on the run now, and because he took so much corporate money in his campaign--he got more from Wall Street than McCain did, for example, he's 'erring' on the side of the banks and corporate power. For Main Street, well all we did was vote him and his cadre into the White House--he owes us nothing and he knows that we are powerless other than all the screaming we do on the blogs or in emails to whitehouse.gov. Welcome to the marginalized class my friends. Blog all you want, it's no substitute for K-Street cash and daily lobbyist face time in DC.

[t iessa]

You're right. I see better than I hear.