Video: Sebelius Speechless Over Obamacare Unpopularity Question

Guy Benson | March 31, 2014 4:27 PM

Well, this was awkward:

I count six seconds of dead air as Sebelius chooses not to respond to the anchor's point about Oklahomans' strong opposition to the law. In fairness, what is she supposed to say? Virtually every piece of recent polling has been terrible for Obamacare -- except for the latest offering from WaPo/ABC:

This survey shows approval of the law at 49/48, mostly thanks to a surge among Democrats. This poll is clearly an outlier, and its results may have something to do with the wording of the question -- which goes out of its way to avoid the using terms "Obamacare" and "Affordable Care Act:"

"Overall, do you support or oppose the federal law making changes to the health care system?" Which one?
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) March 31, 2014

That may explain why this survey measures 20 percent support for the [name of law redacted] among Republicans, nearly double the level other polling has shown. This series has used that vague wording for quite some time, and with a few exceptions, its results have been more forgiving of Obamacare than other polls. The bulk of polling indicates that the percentage of independents who back Obamacare has plunged into the low-to-mid 30s. WaPo has it at 44 percent. Pretty much every other data point I've seen has the law's approval rate underwater by double digits, including Fox, CNN, AP, Morning Consult, and....a brand new poll from CBS News:

Four years after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted, the deadline (albeit somewhat fluid) to sign up for health exchanges is here, and a majority of Americans continue to oppose the law: 53 percent disapprove, while 41 percent approve, according to the latest CBS News Poll. Since the law was passed in March 2010, more have consistently disapproved than approved of it. Public support has never reached the 50 percent mark.