Thursday, January 21, 2010

More About MA

On the subject of why Coakley lost, let's hear what voters who supported Obama in 2008 but ended up voting for Coakley this week have to say:

In a poll conducted after the election Tuesday night [they said] that if Democrats enact tougher policies on Wall Street, they'll be more likely to come back to the party in the next election.

In a somewhat paradoxical finding, a plurality of voters who switched to the Republican -- 37 percent -- said that Democrats were not being "hard enough" in challenging Republican policies.

The poll also upends the conventional understanding of health care's role in the election. A plurality of people who switched -- 48 -- or didn't vote -- 43 -- said that they opposed the Senate health care bill. But the poll dug deeper and asked people why they opposed it. Among those Brown voters, 23 percent thought it went "too far" -- but 36 percent thought it didn't go far enough and 41 percent said they weren't sure why they opposed it.

Among voters who stayed home and opposed health care, a full 53 percent said they opposed the Senate bill because it didn't go far enough; 39 percent weren't sure and only eight percent thought it went too far... 86 percent favored the public option, while only seven percent opposed it. The findings suggests that progressive arguments that disappointed Obama supporters deserted have serious merit.


These findings should terrify almost every Democrat up for reelection in 2010- they need these voters to come back if they want to weather the teabagging storm that frenzied hordes of freepers and 9/12 types are going to summon.

By the way, 41% opposed reform but didn't know why?! How... who in this day and age... what?!

3 comments:

  1. 41% opposed reform but didn't know why?! How... who in this day and age... what?!

    that right there sums up everything you need to know about the vast majority of American people. we are idiots. "i feel this way about topic x. i have no idea why i feel that way, BUT I FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT IT!!!"

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  2. @ DCJonesy can you blame that on the American people? I think it speaks more to the lack of concise information regarding the bill. And, that blame falls on the media. I know more about what is not in it than what is. I barely hear any news regarding what is in this bill. The only focus on it is what it lacks and how its lifesupport is connected to the state of massachussetts.

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  3. So let me get this straight. Percentage-wise, more Brown voters (41%) than non-voters (39%) are unsure why they oppose the health care bill.
    In short, the more motivated they are about opposing the bill, the less likely they are to know why they feel this way?
    Yeah. Wtf?

    Also, I wouldn't blame the media for that. Even if there was a concise summary of the bill, readily available to the public (if you can even make a "concise" summary of a thousand-or-so page bill), I doubt that the 41% in question would be paying enough attention to find it. The problem is more apathy, and less lack of information. Granted, the less effort it takes to be informed, the fewer people will be too lazy to do so...

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