Andrea asks the question . . .
According to the same CNN poll, 77% supported “major structural changes” to achieve universal coverage and 74% supported “major structural changes” to bring costs down. So why isn’t President Obama receiving the same level of stratospheric support?
My answer would be . . .
It’s not so much the ideas of President Obama toward health care reform that people have a problem with. In fact as you state, health care reform has overwhelming approval among the masses, and they really want him to do something about it.
But it’s more the idea of his incessant campaigning for bi-partisanship support for anything that comes to the table that has people thinking all could be lost in trying to get cooperation from a group who’s only familiarity with the vernacular is the word “NO.”
It would be great if the bill received some rational input from the conservatives, but it just doesn’t seem like it wants to happen. So how much waiting should the President do? Perhaps the polls should be an indicator that waiting much longer isn’t such a good idea.
My feeling is everything will turn out relatively well in the long run, but it could very well be the President is wasting a lot of time and building far more anticipation than is necessary in courting the right.
If he’d just let Congress get down to the business of writing a good Democratic bill, we’ll all be a lot happier and a lot less skiddish in our support.
