A newly released ABC News/Washington Post poll has some liberals feeling giddy. The poll shows Obamacare suffering from only a 2-point public-approval deficit among registered voters—with 48 percent in support and 50 percent in opposition. According to RealClearPolitics, that’s the best polling result for Obamacare since the last time ABC News and the Washington Post asked that same question (in late January), at which point Obamacare suffered from a 1-point deficit—47 to 48 percent. In other words, the new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that Obamacare is slightly less popular than it was two months ago. This is the polling result for which liberals have been waiting?
The new poll offers even less good news for Obamacare supporters when it comes to those who feel “strongly.” Among registered voters who feel “strongly” (either way), the poll finds that only 27 percent support Obamacare, while 39 percent oppose it. Liberals can take some solace, however, in this 12-point approval deficit’s being slightly smaller than the 13-point approval deficit (26 to 39 percent) among those who felt “strongly” in January’s ABC News/WaPo poll.
The newly released poll also finds that independents (whether registered or not—the poll doesn’t break them out in that way) oppose Obamacare by a margin of 10 points—with 44 percent supporting and 54 percent opposing. That’s compared with a 4-point margin of opposition in January among that same group (46 to 50 percent). Among independents who feel “strongly,” the margins are even worse for Obamacare: Independents who “strongly” oppose President Obama’s signature legislation outnumber those who “strongly” support it by a margin of 20 points and a tally of more than two-to-one—38 to 18 percent.
According to RealClearPolitics, this is the 111th consecutive poll that finds more Americans opposed to Obamacare than supportive of it. Can you imagine the press corps’ response if 111 consecutive polls had shown Obamacare to be popular and yet conservatives still wouldn’t give up the ghost?
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