Where's the train wreck?
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One of those polls. "President Barack Obama's health-care law is becoming more entrenched, with 64 percent of Americans now supporting it outright or backing small changes. Even so, the fervor of the opposition shows no sign of abating, posing a challenge for Obama's Democrats during congressional races this year, as a Republican victory in a special Florida election this week showed. 'In off-year elections, turnout is a huge factor,' said J. Ann Selzer, who conducted the survey for Bloomberg. 'The anti-Obamacare segment is both more likely to say they will definitely vote and more likely to say their vote will be strongly influenced by their view of Obamacare; that can be enough to sway a race.'" Mike Dorning in Bloomberg.
Another poll that reaches similar conclusions. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.
Both parties now know Americans overall want the law fixed. Actually doing that is easier said than done. "If they agree on what the public wants, why don't they give it to them? Mainly because what the public wants is amorphous and probably impossible. People want to change it because news stories have emphasized the botched rollout and difficulties with implementation, and because both parties are promising to fix it. Many Americans are also unaware that most of the provisions of the law are already in effect. And they like all those provisions, except the individual mandate: A 'keep and fix' solution that polls well, then, would probably involve eliminating the individual mandate and keeping everything else. But the reason the mandate is there is because it's hard to make the other parts work without it." Jonathan Chait in New York Magazine.
ROVE: Republicans shouldn't uncork the champagne yet. "To Republicans, a word of caution over the special election in Florida's 13th congressional district: Don't uncork the champagne. David Jolly's victory on Tuesday over Democrat Alex Sink by 48.4%-46.6% is significant. President Obama won the district twice, and its changing political demographics make it Democratic-leaning -- despite being held for 42 years by C.W. 'Bill' Young, a popular Republican, until his death last fall. Still, special elections don't always dictate how midterms turn out." Karl Rove in The Wall Street Journal.
CASSIDY: It's time for Democrats to embrace Obamacare. "Trying to pussyfoot around Obamacare was an awkward strategy, and, evidently, it didn't work. If other Democrats are to avoid meeting Sink's fate in November, they need something more convincing to say about the Affordable Care Act than 'mend it, don't end it,' which is now their default position. But what could that be? Here's a heretical idea. Rather than parsing the individual elements of the law, and trying to persuade voters on an a la carte basis, what about raising the stakes and defending the reform in its entirety as a historic effort to provide affordable health-care coverage to tens of millions of hard-working Americans who otherwise couldn't afford it? Instead of shying away from the populist and redistributionist essence of the reform, which the White House and many Democrats in Congress have been doing since the start, it's time to embrace it." John Cassidy in The New Yorker.
ROVE: Republicans shouldn't uncork the champagne yet. "To Republicans, a word of caution over the special election in Florida's 13th congressional district: Don't uncork the champagne. David Jolly's victory on Tuesday over Democrat Alex Sink by 48.4%-46.6% is significant. President Obama won the district twice, and its changing political demographics make it Democratic-leaning -- despite being held for 42 years by C.W. 'Bill' Young, a popular Republican, until his death last fall. Still, special elections don't always dictate how midterms turn out." Karl Rove in The Wall Street Journal.
CASSIDY: It's time for Democrats to embrace Obamacare. "Trying to pussyfoot around Obamacare was an awkward strategy, and, evidently, it didn't work. If other Democrats are to avoid meeting Sink's fate in November, they need something more convincing to say about the Affordable Care Act than 'mend it, don't end it,' which is now their default position. But what could that be? Here's a heretical idea. Rather than parsing the individual elements of the law, and trying to persuade voters on an a la carte basis, what about raising the stakes and defending the reform in its entirety as a historic effort to provide affordable health-care coverage to tens of millions of hard-working Americans who otherwise couldn't afford it? Instead of shying away from the populist and redistributionist essence of the reform, which the White House and many Democrats in Congress have been doing since the start, it's time to embrace it." John Cassidy in The New Yorker.
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