After all of the pushing and pulling and screaming and fighting from all sides of the political spectrum, new CNN polling tells us that:
Support for the health care reform bill that Democrats are pushing through the Senate has risen six points since early December, according to a new national poll, and although a majority of Americans still oppose its passage, only four in ten agree with Senate Republicans that the bill is too liberal.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Monday, also indicates that President Barack Obama's approval rating has experienced a similar six-point rise.
The polling was done before Monday's dark-thirty cloture vote, and one can assume that actual passage of the bill will send that support even higher, at least among Democrats:
"Virtually all the increase in support for the Senate health care bill has come from Democrats, with a 10-point increase since early December," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Support is also up 10 points among younger Americans, compared to only two points among people 50 and older."
... Obama's support is also up mostly among liberals, to 81 percent."
In looking at the difference in support between younger and older Americans, one has to ask if it's because older Americans are more likely to be in need of health care or if it's simply a case of many of them having the bejeebus scared out of them with talk of death panels, rationing and slashing benefits. Time will tell.
But the bottom line here seems to be, while the arguments may continue on what achieving health care reform really means, this is good news for the Democrats.