Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen were pollsters for Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. And they think their party is walking towards a Pyrrhic victory on its “health care reform” push:
Nothing has been more disconcerting than to watch Democratic politicians and their media supporters deceive themselves into believing that the public favors the Democrats’ current health-care plan. Yes, most Americans believe, as we do, that real health-care reform is needed. And yes, certain proposals in the plan are supported by the public.
However, a solid majority of Americans opposes the massive health-reform plan. Four-fifths of those who oppose the plan strongly oppose it, according to Rasmussen polling this week, while only half of those who support the plan do so strongly. Many more Americans believe the legislation will worsen their health care, cost them more personally and add significantly to the national deficit. Never in our experience as pollsters can we recall such self-deluding misconstruction of survey data.
The alternative theory being pushed by Nancy Pelosi, among others, is that the Democrats have already spent too much political capital on this behemoth and that walking away now would mean an electoral shellacking in the fall anyway, with nothing to show for it.
We’re in the very best of hands.
Update: Link provided.
OTOH if Steyn is right, a midterm election takeover could be a Pyrrhic victory for the republicans.
I’ll take that chance!
If the Reps do it right (yeah, I know that’s asking a very great deal) the Dems could own this depression like they made the Reps own the so called Great Depression. Of course, both parties are quite guilty of this one.
I thought of that Steyn piece immediately–but I don’t care for either party getting shellacked at the polls–a pox on both their houses. The reality is, as Steyn contends, that this is about power, and once that huge bureaucratic hydrogen bomb is made law, it has as much chance of being repealed as the Department of Education. If Reagan couldn’t get rid of the DOE (Energy or Education), what chance have we of getting rid of Obamacare?
Obviously the majority of Democrats never served a day in uniform, or have a mentor who did… and certainly not in Naval Aviation… I know this because one of the primary lessons taught to me about life by a very learned Fighter/Attack type is… “You NEVER push a bad position!”
Unfortunately I foresee a significant amount of collateral damage in this particular lesson about to be taught.
Of course the Republicans are going to have ot violate the second Navy axiom… “Never assume a F**ked Watch!”
-JC
Sounds familiar: “Better to retire and save your aircraft than push a bad position.”
It’s too bad Tom Cruise is in “Top Gun.” And it’s too bad it wasn’t more air combat.
And here comes the river card…
“Never in our experience as pollsters can we recall such self-deluding misconstruction of survey data.” Or, “Never in our experience as a country, have so many buffalo chips been accepted by so few.”
Beware the law of unintended consequences, it can bring more than a Pyrrhic victory.
It is already a certainty that the Democrat majority in the house is gone, it remains to be seen just how large the purging of conservatives from the party will be.
Steyn is right though, when throughout the history of the United States has an entitlement program been reversed or eliminated?
Then again, when has the process of the Republic been more threatened by unconstitutional legislative action on a Bill that hasn’t been seen, hasn’t been voted on in the House and yet still may make its way back to the Senate for final passage?
I’ll willingly take the Steyn option. No HC bill and a divided gov’t for six years? Six years of lame duck Obama? I’d take that in a heartbeat, given how poorly the Republicans performed when that owned both the Executive and the Legislative branches.
That’s what got us into this mess in the first place. Don’t you remember 2006 when disgusted Republicans stayed home or voted Democrat “to send a message?”
How’s that working out for ya?
I’m with Zane – the only thing that counts for a politician is their re-election
This will be neither Pyrrhic victory for the Democrats, nor is it a case of self deception. The Democratic Party and Liberals generally, have been looking for inserting government hugely into the US economy and into the lives of individual Americans for decades–since FDR at the least.
They know a victory here will be irretrievable: the Republicans and Conservative parties will make enormous gains in 2010, and in 2012, Obama will be replaced. However, in 2010, a veto-proof majority will not be elected, and so the “Pyrrhic” victory of health care deform passage will stand. By 2012, the economic damage will be so extensive that the Republicans will have been unable to recover the situation, and though a Republican/Conservative President will be elected, no further gains–possibly (probably?) losses–will inure to the Republican/Conservative parties. And in 2014 and subsequent elections, the Democrats will begin recovering in the electorate.
The Democrats will suffer grievously in the short term, but they will recover, just as they have in the past and as have the Republicans in the past.
The Democrats know this, and they have made a conscious decision to ram this…bill through anyway, for the long-term victory it represents. After all, the gentry know better than the unwashed, and they’re making this sacrifice because right is on their side.
Eric Hines