NYT Poll Blows Up The GOP's Obamacare Narrative

[DonViejo]

Source: TPM

DYLAN SCOTT – APRIL 23, 2014, 11:24 AM EDT

A poll released Wednesday offers yet another data point showing the politics of Obamacare aren't as set in stone as the conventional wisdom would have you believe. Embracing Obamacare isn't necessarily a political loser, and obstructing it isn't necessarily a winner.

The New York Times/Kaiser Family Foundation poll surveyed four Southern states that will help determine control of the Senate this fall. It earned headlines for finding the Democrats in better shape in the Senate races than most would have expected.

But it also assessed the popularity of four governors who have taken vastly different approaches to Obamacare -- and the findings are a direct contradiction of the narrative that the law is a loser, plain and simple, especially in states like these.

The poll showed Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe (D) and Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D), who expanded Medicaid under the law, are hugely popular. Their approval ratings are more than 20 points higher than their disapproval ratings; Beebe holds 68 percent approval, and Beshear is at 56 percent. But Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) are at best treading water with their constituents after they declined to expand the program to cover low-income residents. McCrory is middling, with 43 percent approval and 44 percent disapproval, while Jindal is 14 percent underwater at 40 percent approval and 54 percent disapproval.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/nyt-kff-poll-governors-obamacare-politics

[Tarheel_Dem]

1. Let's hope this dashes any notion that Jindal is presidential timber. n/t

[immoderate]

2. As if being an idiot isn't reason enough...

--imm

[Tarheel_Dem]

4. That doesn't appear to be a disqualifier on the right.

[LynneSin]

3. Jindal and McCrory look wildly popular compared to Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania

I think a pile of poop would be considered more popular in Pennsylvania than Gov Tom Corbett.

[QuestForSense]

6. I'd vote for the poop over Corbett. What a hack.

[IronLionZion]

7. If PA Dems can get turnout

Medicaid expansion should be a winning issue.

[maddiemom]

9. We like to call him "One Term Tommy." Fingers crossed.

[Blanks]

5. Beebe is leaving office this year...

And he has done commercials endorsing Mike Ross. The senate race is the tight one: Cotton vs Pryor.

Cotton has been ahead, but Pryor recently passed him in the polls. Cotton was up by quite a little but last fall, but I think his team screwed up by pointing out that Pryor was lying, when the 'lies' were actually commercials run by a PAC. He seemed to fall out of the lead when he started running the 'response' commercials.

Here's a video of Cotton running against Obamacare. I don't think at this point he's going to get the lead back.

[rickyhall]

8. Cotton is a neaderthall

[yellowcanine]

10. And it will get worse for Republicans as time goes on.

I think it will hold the Senate for Dems at minimum. And I think they will hold their own in the House and maybe have a small net pickup. But the real change is coming in the states. Where Republicans have been obstructing the ACA and expanded Medicaid I believe Dems are going to make big gains. And it looks to me as if Hillary Clinton is on track to win big in 2016 if the Republicans continue their tactics on the ACA.