GALLUP: Americans Still Sharply Divided on Healthcare Reform, Opponents more intense.

[jefferson_dem]

Americans Still Sharply Divided on Healthcare ReformO
Opponents more likely than supporters to base their 2010 vote on the issueby Lydia Saad

PRINCETON, NJ -- The American people are no less divided on healthcare reform today than they were a month ago. A new Gallup Poll finds 39% of Americans saying they would direct their member of Congress to vote against a healthcare reform bill this fall while 37% want their member to vote in favor.



One in four Americans (24%) say they have no opinion about which way their representative should vote on a healthcare reform bill, down only slightly from early August.

The new Gallup Poll, conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 2, suggests the issue could be politically potent in 2010. Sixty-four percent of Americans say their representative's position on healthcare reform will be a major factor in their vote in the next congressional election; just over a third say it will be no more than a minor factor.



Opponents of reform have the edge in intensity here. Among Americans who want their member of Congress to vote against healthcare reform, 82% say the issue will be a major factor in their vote in next year's elections. Among those wanting their member to vote for reform, 62% say the issue will be a major factor for them.



Demographic Breaks on Support for Healthcare Reform

Public attitudes about how members of Congress should vote on healthcare reform are highly partisan. Two-thirds of Democrats (68%) want their representative to support a healthcare reform bill while a comparably sized majority of Republicans (72%) want their member to vote against it. Independents lean against healthcare reform, 44% vs. 29%, although their opposition does not rise to the level of a majority (28% of independents offer no opinion).

<SNIP>

http://www.gallup.com/poll/122822/Americans-Sharply-Divided-Healthcare-Reform.aspx

[Bonn1997]

1. Obama had public support for his plan but sat down and watched while Republicans sucessfully...

attacked. He has a major opportunity to turn things around tomorrow but there was no excuse for the past 3 months unfolding like they did.

[elocs]

2. Yes, the last 3 months have not exactly been powerful and inspiring for our side. n/t

[FrenchieCat]

8. Blame one man, why don't you......

which one man/woman on the opposite side made all of the noise? Oh yeah...that's right,
it was a bunch of folks! Where are the bunch of folks from our side for you to blame;
those who didn't bother to show up to their town hall, cause they were too busy trashing the president for God knows what.

Look progressive folks only wanted to hold Obama's feet to the fire,
and at the end, it is the entire country that will burn for it.

[ProSense]

3. So nothing has changed? I thought the plan lost a lot of support?

Acoording to this chart, "vote for" went up two points, one point less than "vote against":




After all the negative hype, nothing has changed.

[jefferson_dem]

4. Still 1/4 undecided. That's "hugh".

Big Number Still Undecided About Health Care On Eve Of Obama’s Speech

One thing that’s gotten a bit lost in all the chatter about how dreadful August was for Obama and Dems is that large numbers still remain undecided about whether they back the health care reform proposal — underscoring that this fight is far from over and that September may prove the decisive month.

That’s the real news in this new Gallup poll out this morning. It finds that for all the hoopla about the success of the town hall hooliganism, voters remain basically deadlocked over the proposal, with a quarter of voters saying they still have “no opinion” on whether they want their member of Congress to vote for it.

That’s not all: It also finds that a surprising 28% of independents are undecided, too. The independent vote, of course, is one of the key battlegrounds of the health care wars. While independents are tilting against the plan right now, the large bloc of undecideds suggests there’s plenty of room to make up ground.

The persistently high number of undecideds is yet another sign that Obama’s failure to forcefully lay down his bottom line on health care early on may have been a disastrous mistake. On the other hand, it may mean that many want to hear more from the president before making up their minds, perhaps giving Obama a chance to turn things around. It’s another reminder that the stakes of his big speech tomorrow just couldn’t be higher

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/on-eve-of-obamas-big-speech-large-number-still-undecided-about-health-care/

[ProSense]

7. "how dreadful August was for Obama " Frankly, this poll shows exactly the opposite. If

nothing has changed (in fact, support edged up 2 points), then one can reason that the high-levels of support the public option enjoyed earlier remains intact.

It shows that the tremendous volume of noise from the lunatic right and all the media distortions failed miserably. Remember, some people are still pushing the bogus claim that Obama did nothing. If that was true, then the negative noise would have had a greater impact, and surely that impact would have result in a drop, not a slight increase in support.

It shows that claims about how horrible August was for the public option is nothing more than negative spin.

[uponit7771]

5. Obama is only one person, it'd be nice to have help from the DNC and other grass roots organizations

[TxRider]

6. All Obama really has to do is convince independents.to move to the "for" column.

That would make the right irrelevant.