Michael Barone notes:
When Republican Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri announced that he would not run for reelection, his seat seemed ripe for a Democratic pickup. Barack Obama had just narrowly missed carrying Missouri by 3,903 votes, Democrat Jay Nixon had just been elected governor, Democrat Clair McCaskill had defeated incumbent Republican Senator Jim Talent in 2006 and Democrats had a ready-made candidate in Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, daughter of the late Governor Mel Carnahan and of former Senator Jean Carnahan…
In addition, the lead Republican candidate, 7th district Congressman Roy Blunt, at first seemed to be burdened with disadvantages: he spent 14 years in Washington as a congressman, much of it as part of the Republican leadership, he is married to a Washington lobbyist and his son Matt Blunt left the governorship in 2008 after one term with a low job rating. But in the four public polls conducted this year, Blunt has led Carnahan by a 47%-41% margin. In the most recent, conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, he leads 45%-41%–despite the fact that his favorables/unfavorables are perfectly dreadful (25%-41%) and much lower than Carnahan’s (38%-43%). So what’s going on? Reaction to “President Obama’s health care plan” is hugely negative: only 37% support it and 54% oppose it…
That is just astounding. The Democrat talking point remains “now that its passed, Republicans will be toast if they run against it”. Perhaps something like that would have worked 20 or 25 years ago – when the Democrats could rely upon the MSM to hammer home the message. And when people weren’t quite as disgusted with government as they are, today.
Now, however, things have changed. All a Republican has to do to get thunderous applause is announce he will work to repeal ObamaCare – not “healthcare” and not “healthcare reform” – ObamaCare. That is the key – the people don’t want this bill passed by this Congress and signed by this President. Democrats can yammer on endlessly about how wonderful the bill is but the fact remains that the way in which it was done has assured its unpopularity no matter what is in it.
And as we learn what is in it, it seems like its full of holes, doesn’t even cover the basic Democrat promises about and appears to have been written by insurance company lobbyists. Its a toxic stew, and Democrats may very much rue it by November.
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