Even though the Washington Post/ABC pollsters have a reputation for skewing their surveys in favor of the administration, President Obama’s “signature legislative achievement” is still deeply unpopular.
Last month’s hearings on the constitutionality of health care reform didn’t help its popularity: Public support for Barack Obama’s signature domestic legislation has hit a new low in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, with criticism of the individual mandate as high as ever.Half the public, moreover, thinks the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the legislation on the basis of the justices’ partisan political views rather than the law. Fewer, 40 percent, think impartial legal analysis will carry the day, with the rest unsure.
Fifty-three percent of Americans now oppose the law overall, while just 39 percent support it – the latter the lowest in more than a dozen ABC/Post polls since August 2009. “Strong” critics, at 40 percent, outnumber strong supporters by nearly a 2-1 margin in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates.
As Ed Morrissey over at HotAir Points out, the only real difference between this survey and the one conducted last month is the sampling, which now heavily favors the president. Still, 77 percent of the 1003 adults polled either want to throw out the law in its entirety (38 percent) or toss the individual mandate (29 percent). In other words, three-fourths of American adults are deeply disenchanted with the President’s health care law. Could this have anything to do with it?
What’s more, according to a WaPo/ABC poll released yesterday, President Obama ostensibly leads Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney by double digits on a range of issues, most notably health care. When asked, for example, who would do a better job protecting middle class families, voters overwhelmingly sided with the president. Yet despite the fact the poll was deeply skewed and does not accurately reflect public opinion, a plurality of voters – perhaps a majority – still find President Obama more likable, friendly, and “inspiring” than Mitt Romney.
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Parting thought: One of the arguments invariably proposed by Mitt Romney’s GOP rivals is that RomneyCare essentially provided the blueprint for ObamaCare, and that nominating a so-called “Massachusetts moderate” would take one of the biggest issues off the table in November. That being said, depending on how the Supreme Court rules on the legislation in June (as Guy pointed out on Megyn Kelly’s show yesterday), ObamaCare might be struck down before the general election. While this outcome is far from certain, it’s a contingency that could have disastrous consequences for President Obama's reelection campaign.
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