President Obama is surging in the polls after a raucous DNC. And while some of this bump is due to his party's successful convention, a new poll suggests that a more significant factor may be at play.
Survey Uninformed Voters U.S.A asked 3,500 likely voters their views on Health Care Reform and their pick for president in the 2012 election. The survey, conducted from September 6-8 and published today, revealed a startling result:
We found that of the 1,820 voters (52%) who indicated they would vote for Obama in the 2012 election, a remarkable 1531 (84%) of them had either negative or very negative views on Obamacare.
Given the significance of health care reform during the President's first term, such a correlation was certainly surprising. When we spoke with some of the respondents in follow-up interviews, a central factor became clear: voters have largely decided to forgive President Obama for providing them with access to healthcare.
Some of the interviews published by
Survey Uninformed Voters U.S.A. certainly seemed to back up the polling outfit's claim.
"Not gonna lie, I hate Obama for allowing my 24-year-old, basement-dwelling son to be all lazy and hop on my insurance plan," said Sheila Ross, a hairdresser from Ann Arbor, Michigan. "But like that Clinton fella said, he did get my brother back to work at GM. So, yeah, I forgive him."
Josh Brighton, a fifty-nine year old logger from Wheeling, West Virginia, expressed a similar sentiment. When asked about Obamacare, he snorted, "Preexisting conditions? It's called survival of the fittest – you don't mess with that sh*t."
Brighton did go on, however, to forgive Obama for providing his cancer-stricken mother with the ability to buy insurance. "I look at it this way: he's making up for savin' mom by killing some terrorists in Pakistan. I can live with that."
The published poll did not measure how much of an effect
President Bill Clinton's DNC speech had on this forgiveness voters seem to be granting Obama. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that "
The Secretary of Explaining Things" may have had an effect.
"When that Clinton went on and on about all the lies the Republicans are telling, I said to my wife, Well hell, maybe that Obama's not so evil," said Bill Sweet, a Verizon technician in Oklahoma City.
If millions of voters do indeed forgive the President for providing them with access to healthcare, the 2012 election will certainly go Obama's way.
After such an overwhelming policy failure in Obamacare, such a victory would truly be remarkable, and would reinforce the old adage: to forgive is to forget.
Follow me on Twitter @David_EHG
Author's Note:
This post was inspired by this Andy Borowitz Tweet.