Do you remember way way back, many years ago, the president signed a massively historical Health Care Reform bill into law?
Some people, who's been around for a while, thought it was...
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....But others were certain if it can't be this...
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...Then it must be at least THIS!
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...Oh no. That didn't work either...
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...Well, they were left with no choice. They must save the world (Or at least save America!!!)....
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...And this is going to work. No doubt. Because after all, less than a week following the signing, the media already declared: "The nation still hates reform"!!! If only that annoyingly-most-patient-man-in-the-world wasn't right again...
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But he was.
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90 days later, lo-and-behold: According to June 14 AP poll more American now support this reform than at any point since AP started polling on the question in September 2009.
Support was always higher among women than men. But the past two months, support among men has risen from 39 percent in early May to 46 percent today.
Even Republicans, very quietly so Glenn Beck can't hear, are warming up. In early May, only 8 percent of self-identified Republicans said they agreed with what Congress had done. Now, the number has more than doubled to 17 percent.
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Things improved so much, that it begins to look like HCR can be an Unexpected winning issue for Democrats in November.
By any measure, says Harvard University public health professor Robert Blendon, the Obama administration and its Congressional allies have improved their position in the period following the vote. "They are clearly making progress in convincing more Americans that this bill is the right way to go," says Blendon.
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The bottom line: in competitive House and Senate contests this fall, there is good reason to believe being on the side of reform will be a political positive for Democrats—not the negative that Republican strategists and many pundits imagined in March and April.
Smart Democrats will run as savvy backers of reform who talk about it as a first step and open dialogues with voters about how and where to take the next steps.
Those same smart Democrats will, as well, be hoping that they catch the lucky break of having Republican opponents who run as "party of No" opponents of any meaningful moves to repair of healthcare system that voters are coming to recognize as being in need of reform.
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Today the administration issued the regulations to implement the Patient’s Bill of Rights. President Obama marked the 90-day anniversary with a speech at the WH, in the presence of some of the people whose stories he shared throughout the year. He gave progress report, explained what's still going to happen this year (Goodies BEFORE the election...:)), almost killed another fly and did not forget to challenge Republicans, yet again, to run on repeal. Watch it.
* If you want to see the moving introduction by Amy Wilhite from Marblehead, Ohio, mother of a 12 years old girl with AML, go here.
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All these were taken by AP:
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President Obama and Amy Wilhite.
Taylor Wihite photographs her mother as she introduces the President.
(Official WH photo by Pete Souza).
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Laura Klitzka, from Green Bay, Wis., a 35-year old, married mother of two with metastatic breast cancer.
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Mmmmm, yea, repeal this.