Despite tens of millions of dollars thrown into an all out public relations, astroturfing, and disinformation blitz by the insurance industry over the last month, throwing every weapon in their arsenal, the twenty-something percent minority of the electorate who opposed the public option all year has at best only grown to and leveled off at a forty-seven percent minority, almost exactly the percentage of voters who went for McCain last year.
Some in the media continually assert that this 47% means a majority of Americans oppose the public option, and that the 47% opposing a public option should overrule the 53% of America who voted for Obama last year as he campaigned for a public option.
I would simply point them to the consequences of the election results in 2008, and a nifty mathematical equation that goes something like this:
53% > 47%. Eat It.
(Note: The removal of Eat It from the equation does not effect the quotient, but is still considered the more accurate notation of the algorithm by most mathematicians)
IMPORTANT UPDATE below the fold...
UPDATED: 47% really is the best case scenario number for public option opposition, as the recent Survey USA Poll shows 77% of Americans in favor of a public option when the word government is not tacked on to the question as NBC's poll did, as TPM explains:
the survey asked 1200 adults how important they feel it is "to give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance?"
Fifty-eight percent of respondents said "extremely important." Nineteen said "quite important": a total of 77 percent. The rest of respondents said the choice of a public option was not important or weren't sure.
The NBC/WSJ poll asked "Would you favor or oppose creating a public health care plan administered by the federal government that would compete directly with private health insurance companies?" Forty-three percent favored, 47 opposed.
The proper conclusion to draw? Perhaps that Americans like the word choice more than they like the government creating things.