Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) certainly became the Democrats’ favorite Republican and there’s polling from Quinnipiac to prove it. The Arizona senator was one of three senators, Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) being the other two, who blocked the so-called “skinny repeal” last week. On face value, yes—it was a bad bill, though House Republicans agreed to send it to conference if it passed, but that’s all over now.
With McCain being pegged as the Republican who could stop the bill last Friday, liberal outlets were quite awful in their coverage of someone who had recently been diagnosed with brain cancer. There was a lot of “I don’t want to hear another word about McCain unless he does something good or dies” commentaries coming from the Left leading up to the vote. He eventually votes “no,” and now he’s some hero, which brings us to the poll (via The Hill):
Nearly three in four Democrats, 74 percent, hold a favorable opinion of McCain, while only 39 percent of Republican have a favorable view of the GOP senator, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday.
Forty-nine percent of Republicans hold an unfavorable view of the Arizona lawmaker, while 18 percent of Democrats have an unfavorable opinion, according to the poll. Twice as many independents view him positively than negatively, 60 to 28 percent.
Overall, 57 percent of voters have a favorable view of the senator, while 32 percent hold an unfavorable view.
The poll was conducted July 27 through Aug. 1, mostly after McCain joined two fellow Republican senators in rejecting a pared-down "skinny" ObamaCare repeal bill last Friday.
Is the maverick back?
Personally, I do hope Sen. McCain beats his cancer and makes a strong recovery. Politically, he’s facing a lot of Republicans, who quite frankly have had enough of him, though there doesn't appear to be a hoping for death caucus like there is on the Left. The irony of this whole saga is that the man who campaigned against Obama’s health care agenda in 2008 voted to save it. In Arizona, premiums were projected to spike 116 percent this year. The GOP has yet to come through on their promise of repeal and replace. McCain wants to return to regular order to fix this, working together on a new bill. Republicans working with Democrats is not what was promised to conservatives concerning Obamacare. They did not vote Republican in 2010, 2014, and 2016 for them to work with Democrats to keep the law intact and make tweaks to it. After almost a decade promising repeal, there’s no turning back. Just remember that, GOP.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member