Veronique’s post below raises an important point. Some on the left the last few days have been saying that Massachusetts voters are uniquely worked up against the Democrats’ health-care plan because they already have health insurance under the state’s (Romneycare) program, and so are less inclined to need what the Democrats are offering. The fact that they’re voting for a Republican because of health care doesn’t mean people in other places would, they say.
The trouble is, opposition to Obamacare is not higher in Massachusetts than elsewhere in the country. In surveying Bay State voters last night, Rasmussen found that 51 percent opposed the Democrats’ health-care bill and 47 percent supported it. Another exit poll, by Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates, found the same thing: 52 percent of voters said they opposed the health-care bill. Polling in the days before the vote found the same views among Mass. adults in general: Just over half oppose the bill. And in national polling, you find just the same result. Yesterday’s Washington Post/ABC News poll (question 26 here) found that 51 percent of Americans oppose the bill, and 44 percent support it. Rasmussen this week found even greater opposition nationwide than in Massachusetts (56 percent oppose, 38 percent support).
The Democrats are going to need another excuse.