"Health care is not a popular" issue?

ANDREA MITCHELL (MSNBC): What is the mood in the White House? Are they getting nervous about this, do they think that they needed to use their political capital, and the biggest issue, of course, on their plate, health care, is not a popular one, and never has been?"

KYRA PHILLIPS (CNN): Our new CNN/Opinion Research poll shows that 50% favor the President's plan, 45% oppose. The survey showed the plan most popular among younger Americans, least popular among seniors.

Even more important than the support for President Obama is the fact that an overwhelming share of the American public supports major changes to our health care system. According to the same CNN poll, 77% supported "major structural changes" to achieve universal coverage and 74% supported "major structural changes" to bring costs down.

So why isn't President Obama receiving the same level of stratospheric support? Well, the cross-tabs referenced by CNN help explain a big part of the problem: the health insurance industry has systematically targeted older, vulnerable Americans with lies about Democratic plans for health insurance reform, including the absurd accusation that the health care plan could impose forced euthanasia on seniors.

Lies like that aren't responsible for the full breadth of the gap, but they are responsible for a good chunk of it, and while it's true that the primary responsibility for debunking those lies rests with Democrats and the White House, inaccurate claims about the popularity of health care don't help advance the truth.