On tonight's Ed Show, Big Ed cited a new poll showing that support for the public option INCREASED from 52 percent to 55 percent from August to September. The question is who gets the most credit?
I know there is a certain segment of astroturf "liberals" who will continue to insist that President Obama does not really support health care reform or a public option, and spam a series of purported liberal articles asserting that President Obama has not shown adequate leadership. Yet, here we are with support for the public option GROWING, and the President continuing to promote health care reform and the public option.
My impression is that most Democrats and liberals recognize that we do have an ally in the President who is trying to get the best bill he can out of Congress. While some folks insist that the President should be throwing down ultimatums, I personally think that the President's willingness to try to engage with Republicans is starting to pay off in that over 60% of Americans now believe that Republicans are not negotiating with the President in good faith. Now, if the President simply issued ultimatums, how would those numbers look regarding who is at fault for the partisan atmosphere in Congress?
If you disagree with the public option, then that is a fair criticism, but the argument that the President does not support a public option simply does not hold water, and it never has. The President has given over 100 interviews, which is far more than the 37 given by Dubya and the 41 or so by Bill Clinton at a similar juncture.
If you disagree with the public option fine, but to suggest that the President is lying about his support for this option makes one no better than Joe Wilson.
Edit: Here is a cite to some of the polling references from WaPo:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_091309.html?sid=ST2009091400007###
22. Would you support or oppose having the government create a new health insurance plan to compete with private health insurance plans? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?
-------- Support -------- --------- Oppose -------- No
NET Strongly Somewhat NET Somewhat Strongly opinion
9/12/09 55 33 22 42 11 31 3
8/17/09 52 33 19 46 11 35 2
6/21/09 62 NA NA 33 NA NA 5
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