dagblog - Comments for "Poll finds broad bipartisan support for tax package"

The messaging against it was

Oxy Mora — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:48:22 +0000

The messaging against it was extremely effective. I'm reading :Deadly Spin", a tell all by ex-insurance PR guy Wendell Potter. How they marginalized Michael Moore is unbelievable. For some hundreds of thousand dollars in PR they had every news outlet in the country framing Michael Moore and "Sicko" in exactly the words and phrases they provided. Same with the health care bill.

Well, first, I happen to

artappraiser — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:24:20 +0000

In reply to Artsy, thanks for that link.

Well, first, I happen to think it's a dumb thing to think, because reform of our health care situation is crucial to our long term economic health. And if they had done nothing business and individuals would have been bitching about the rising costs and how nobody cares. But I suspect he's right,. It wouldn't have been that hard to solve, all you had to do was keep messaging that you are fixing health insurance for economic purposes.Which they didn't do very well. Bill Clinton did it as a new president, I think even before he was inaugurated there were summits with business about health care costs killing them, and I recall he just kept saying the laser beam line over and over so much that there were parodies of it. People understood back then that it was an economy issue, now apparently they don't, at least not the way it was approached.

LOL, USA Today/Gallup

artappraiser — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:16:54 +0000

In reply to Seems like the majority likes

LOL, USA Today/Gallup concludes nearly the opposite:

Poll: 49 percent support tax cut deal
By Susan Page, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Americans are inclined to support the tax-cut deal negotiated by President Obama and congressional Republicans, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, but the compromise hasn't boosted optimism about the prospects for bipartisan action to address the nation's problems.

Even as leaders in both parties predict the package will pass Congress, the public apparently views the process that reached it with some skepticism.
Forty-nine percent of those surveyed support passage of the deal — a plurality but not quite a majority — while a third oppose it and nearly one in five say they're not sure....

I think mebbe I should just let poll geeks like Articleman handle commentary on this one...

Artsy, thanks for that link.

Oxy Mora — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:15:10 +0000

In reply to Seems like the majority likes

Artsy, thanks for that link. Whether he should have delayed healthcare will continue to be one of the great debates. And could he have gotten the necessary stimulus if he had concentrated on that instead? There's only so much stimulus you can get in 18 months via infrastructure. As for a WPA, which in my mind is the thing which was really needed, there is no way he would have gotten it.

Seems like the majority likes

artappraiser — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:03:50 +0000

In reply to Poll finds broad bipartisan support for tax package

Seems like the majority likes that whole compromising thingie--the way it works where you get some things you like and the other guy gets some things he likes but you don't like. Instead of gridlock. On economic issues at least.

Charlie Cook's Dec. 7 column seems related: It's the economy, stupids, you were supposed to be focusing on it like a laser beam:

.....Americans see Democrats as having failed in their stewardship of the economy. A recession grew worse, unemployment soared, and Democrats seem to have checked the box and moved on to issues nearer and dearer to their hearts.

For some reason, climate change legislation and health care seemed to be more important than sticking to a focus on the economy through 2009 and into 2010. It might be a while before voters forgive the president and the remaining Democrats in Congress for that.....