New Poll Shows that 77% of Americans Support Public Option "Choice"; Meanwhile, Progressives Bemoan Obama's Failure to Take a Strong Stand

by Damozel  | As Deb has said over and over, it matters who is doing the polling and how they frame the questions. Huff Post reports:

"More than three out of every four Americans feel it is important to have a "choice" between a government-run health care insurance option and private coverage, according to a public opinion poll released on Thursday.

"A new study by Survey USA puts support for a public option at a robust 77 percent, one percentage point higher than where it stood in June.

"But the numbers tell another story, as well.

"Earlier in the week, after pollsters for NBC dropped the word "choice" from their question on a public option, they found that only 43 percent of the public were in favor of "creating a public health care plan administered by the federal government that would compete directly with private health insurance companies."

"Opponents of the president's agenda jumped on the findings as evidence that backing for the public option was dropping. Proponents responded by arguing that NBC's tinkering with the language of the question (which it had also done in its July survey) had contributed to the drop in favorability for a public plan."

So have Americans -- excluding the usual crazies -- gone off the public option?  Not so much.

Alan Colmes:  "You would think the White House and Democrats, who were elected to change things, would sit up and take notice."  You would. 

And Dan Froomkin and Paul Krugman explain -- one more time! -- why the public option is better for everyone and why progressives are incensed at Obama's failure to stand by his promises.  Whence the backlash on the left?  Hence:

On the issue of health care itself, the inspiring figure progressives thought they had elected comes across, far too often, as a dry technocrat who talks of “bending the curve” but has only recently begun to make the moral case for reform. Mr. Obama’s explanations of his plan have gotten clearer, but he still seems unable to settle on a simple, pithy formula; his speeches and op-eds still read as if they were written by a committee....

[T]here’s a growing sense among progressives that they have, as my colleague Frank Rich suggests, been punked. And that’s why the mixed signals on the public option created such an uproar.

Now, politics is the art of the possible. Mr. Obama was never going to get everything his supporters wanted.

[T]here’s a point at which realism shades over into weakness, and progressives increasingly feel that the administration is on the wrong side of that line. It seems as if there is nothing Republicans can do that will draw an administration rebuke: Senator Charles E. Grassley feeds the death panel smear, warning that reform will “pull the plug on grandma,” and two days later the White House declares that it’s still committed to working with him.

It’s hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Obama has wasted months trying to appease people who can’t be appeased, and who take every concession as a sign that he can be rolled.

Now, we at Buck Naked Politics aren't upset with Obama because nobody here ever took him for a true progressive any more than Krugman ever did.  But that doesn't mean we're not frustrated and disappointed with the administration and our Democratic majority in Congress -- and sick to death of bipartisanship for its own sake.

Arianna Huffington concedes that she is disappointed at his failure to lead -- and own -- the debate. In an interview with Charlie Rose,

"...[Huffington] was critical of [Obama's] leadership skills: "He is demonstrating a preference for compromise and reconciliation even before the fight has been fought." She contrasted him with FDR, who rejected compromise with both Republican and Democratic senators who sought to water down Social Security, concluding of Obama: "He's a pied piper but he has not taken a strong stand on health care reform or on Wall Street reform.""  (HuffPost)

My personal view is that the anti public option (many of whom are exactly the people who would benefit from a public option) who are screeching about nazis and communism at town halls are a very small minority and that their "voices" should be ignored till they tire of their sport and crawl back into their bunkers.  All I want is for the Dems to STOP TRYING TO PLACATE THEM.   As soon as health care becomes an entitlement -- as it is in civilized countries -- the far right loons will shut up about it.  I guarantee it.

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Comments

[flowerplough]

Paul Krugman explains -- one more time! -- why the public option is better for everyone?

You first, then, Paul. Give up the health insurance you've got & sign yourself up for BammyCare. Lead the way. Bammy can't. Will you?

See, Paulie, right now, the "public option" is looking a bit like the electric car. I've got a car now, and I'm relatively happy with it, so why should I spend a lot more to buy an electric car that won't go nearly as far and will be much less servicable and convenient? I'd be said to have "acted stupidly" if I'd done so, hayna? Or no?

[Roxanne]

Nice post. Obama deserves a chance. Americans voted him right?

[brandon]

Once the public option gets rid of private insurance, there will no longer be a choice! Which then puts the survey back to only 43% approve. Nice manipulation! The power needs to be in the hands of the consumer, not the feds! Obama said it himself. Fedex and UPS are doing just fine, it's the post office that's always having trouble! Govt run healthcare will sink this economy and give terrible care! If you don't believe me, hang out at the DMV, or ask a car dealer how much they're owed for the CARS program!