Yesterday, President Obama, the boy who wouldn’t grow up, told reporters that the “stars are aligned” for passing health care reform. Of course, that was before the President had yet another presser where he blamed everyone but himself for a growing list of failures.
Obama’s confidence seemed to into reality today as Harry Reid said that the Senate would have no vote before the August recess. Additionally, Nancy Pelosi’s assertion that she has the votes seems to have some real question. Pelosi had what was described as “the most contentious whip meeting” yet as she tried to find a way to get a bill to the floor for a vote.
On the public front Obama is also losing steam. First, Obama’s fourth prime time presser had the lowest public participation yet. Last night’s presser didn’t manage to gain even 1/2 of the folks who watched the Obama’s first presser. Second, Rasmussen Reports now says that 53% of Americans are against health care reform. More importantly, as more information is coming out on the various proposals, that number is rising quickly as it rose 8% in less than a month. Also, the number of people strongly opposed to the plans out numbers those who strongly favor the plan by more than 50%! If that isn’t bad enough, the veneer is now off Obama as 53% of Americans now believe that he is governing as a partisan!
All of these things leave me asking; if this is Obama’s view of the “stars aligning”, will he end up looking like Nostradamus or the Prince of Neverland?
Revisions/extensions (5:23 am 7/24/2009, or at least that’s the time stamp I’m giving it – steveegg) – Sammy found some rather interesting numbers in the current Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll that show the same thing:
- A plurality of independents (41%) and majority of Republicans (60%) think Congress is moving too quickly on health care.
- An effective majority of independents (50%) and a supermajority of Republicans (78%) would rather see Congress do nothing on health care than pass major reforms this year.
- A plurality of independents (43%; skewed by the fact that 24% didn’t know what they thought) and a supermajority of Republicans (80%) oppose the plans before Congress.
- The reason why I say that the mere plurality of opposition to the plan under consideration is skewed by ignorance is 51% of independents oppose creation of a government-run insurance option that competes with private insurance, an effective majority of 50% of independents say that it is not the role of federal government to provide universal health care, and 59% of independents would rather be in the current privately-run health care system rather than a government-run one.
I guess the only star that The Won is looking at is the clock, and it’s looking like that’s running out.
