RSS Feed MenuOn the eve of the tomorrow’s historic health care vote, a privately-commissioned poll by the Republican National Committee shows that the President’s health care reform bill is overwhelmingly unpopular among undecided voters.
In a memo obtained by FrumForum, Chairman Michael Steele tells the other members of the RNC that their poll shows the danger that Democrats face in passing the President’s health care package.
The poll shows that 69% of undecided voters would be less likely to vote for a candidate who voted for the health care reform bill tomorrow. Meanwhile, a strong majority of undecided voters (60%) opposed the legislation, with 45% strongly opposing it.
President Obama tried to keep his party in line today, predicting that health care reform was only “24 hours away”. Meanwhile, Republicans and other opponents of the President’s health care reform bill organized to make a last-minute effort to ‘kill the bill’.
Soon after Obama’s statement, RNC Chairman Michael Steele questioned Obama’s confidence in the passage of the bill. In the memo to RNC members, Steele said that “despite [President Obama's] lofty rhetoric, the president has been telling wavering Democrat members of Congress that his presidency is on the line, cancelling a scheduled overseas trip and trying to assure them that everything will calm down after his government takeover of health care passes.”
The RNC poll also holds other good indications of a strong Republican showing in November. Among undecided voters, 46% said that they would prefer a “Republican candidate who would be a check and balance to President Obama and the Democrats in Congress,” compared to 19% who disagreed with the statement. 53% said that the would consider voting for a Republican so as to “send a message to President to President Obama and the Democrats and make them listen to voters like me.”
While the Republican Party rallied against Obama’s health care plan, the tea party movement gathered on Capitol Hill for another day of protests. Talking Points Memo reports that some of the protests may have led to some unfortunate incidents in the Capitol complex:
A group swarmed a very calm looking Henry Waxman, as he got on the elevator, with shouts of “Kill the bill!” “You liar! You crook!”
Not long before, Rep. Barney Frank got an uglier version of the treatment. Just after Frank rounded a corner to leave the building, an older protestor yelled “Barney, you faggot.” The surrounding crowd of protestors then erupted in laughter.
TPM is also reporting that protestors yelled the word “nigger” at Rep. John Lewis (D-GA).
The protests will continue throughout the evening, and FrumForum’s Noah Kristula-Green will be on-site to report on the candlelight vigil this evening at the Capitol. Stay tuned for more developments.
Please follow FrumForum reporters on twitter at @timkmak and @noahkgreen.
TerryF98 // Mar 20, 2010 at 7:00 pm
WOW an RNC poll find what the RNC wants it to find. Woodathunkit!
Te partyers shouting NIGGER! at a respected civil rights leader, can’t be true surely.
Gramps // Mar 20, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Desperate times require desperate measures…or some historians [including Newt Gingrich] have written…?
The… “Contract on America“ …comes to mind…?
BoolaBoola // Mar 20, 2010 at 10:33 pm
Doesn’t matter. Negotiations are over. Republicans could have helped approach the health-care problem from a conservative standpoint, but they chose instead to obstruct. Now no one cares what Republicans think!
COProgressive // Mar 20, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Tim Mak wrote;
“The poll shows that 69% of undecided voters would be less likely to vote for a candidate who voted for the health care reform bill tomorrow.”
“The RNC poll also holds other good indications of a strong Republican showing in November.”
“While the Republican Party rallied against Obama’s health care plan, the tea party movement gathered on Capitol Hill for another day of protests.”
The lasting result of this poll and the protests over the HCR bill will be that I have United healthcare S&I Insurance and after the bill becomes law I will have United Healthcare as my S&I Insurance. The people that responded to the poll will have the same S&I Insurance company they had before the bill was signed. A month from now no one will even notice that we have a new Healthcare reform law in place. Most people will ask, “What the Hell was all the fuss over?”
As to the Tea Partiers, the wind will quickly come out of their sails once the bill is signed into law and then they well become nothing more than the noisy ignorant mob we have all come to know and love, just with one less cause to champion.
By summer, 69% of the undecided voters won’t remember the HCR bill was even signed into law.
My Time to Waste» Blog Archive » Make It Say Whatever You Need It To Say // Mar 20, 2010 at 10:53 pm
[...] before the House vote on Health Care Reform, the Republican National Committee has come out with a poll on the subject. The timing of this poll is clearly intended to intimidate Democratic congressman into voting [...]
rbottoms // Mar 21, 2010 at 3:28 am
“Warning: If Brown can’t stop it, a Browning can,” referring to Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and a Browning firearm:
The freak show Right Wing. The gift that keeps on giving.
mlindroo // Mar 21, 2010 at 4:40 am
> The poll shows that 69% of undecided voters would be less likely to vote
> for a candidate who voted for the health care reform bill tomorrow.
Public opinion is constantly changing, however.
Did GW Bush show contempt for the American people in early 2007 when he launched “the Surge” in Iraq despite the war being massively unpopular at that stage? Of course not. He simply felt abandoning Iraq would have disastrous consequences for the U.S..
For better or worse, politicians should pursue policies they think are good for their country even if public opinion has not yet come around. Sometimes there _ARE_ horrible miscalculations, e.g. the decision to invade and occupy Iraq on a shoestring budget. But that’s OK too, there is always the next election. Obama and the Democratic 59%-41% majority in Congress have this opportunity as a direct result of Bush and the Republicans implementing some bad policies in 2000-06…
MARCU$
sinz54 // Mar 21, 2010 at 11:39 am
BoolaBoola: Republicans could have helped approach the health-care problem from a conservative standpoint
The “approach from a conservative standpoint” was spelled out by the Heritage Foundation, and something like it was proposed by McCain in his 2008 campaign.
It’s so anathema to liberals that there is no way they could have worked with the Dems on it. It’s the diametric opposite of what the liberals are proposing: To privatize the health care system even more.
The GOP had no alternative but to obstruct. They were as far apart from Pelosi as Code Pink was from President Bush on Iraq. What kind of “compromise” could Code Pink have proposed on Iraq?
sinz54 // Mar 21, 2010 at 11:40 am
BoolaBoola:
One more thing. Olympia Snowe did try to work with the Dems on health care reform. But Dem Majority Leader Reid’s actions proved that her cooperation was neither needed nor desired.
ottovbvs // Mar 21, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Sinz:
“It’s so anathema to liberals that there is no way they could have worked with the Dems on it. It’s the diametric opposite of what the liberals are proposing: To privatize the health care system even more.’
……Then there was the little problem it didn’t do anything to extend coverage, deal with the issue of pre-existing conditions, and the sums didn’t add up…..it literally did not add up financially at the micro or macro level which is why McCain could never explain it, and it has since sunk without trace…..Republican opposition had nothing do do with it and you know it which alas demonstrates what you are Sinz.