The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack points out that the more President Obama tries to pitch his healthcare reform proposals to the public, the less the public likes them..
Here are the results of the most recent Gallup poll, conducted a couple days after Obama’s big Sept. 9 speech to Congress::
Despite the intensity with which the healthcare debate has been waged in recent months, and President Obama’s ongoing involvement in that debate, there has been little change in the way Americans view Obama’s handling of healthcare policy across Gallup surveys conducted in July and August, and in the current Sept. 11-13 survey. Obama’s approval rating on healthcare has been 43% or 44% in all three surveys, and his disapproval rating has varied only slightly — between 49% and 52%.
In fact, the Gallup figures show, disapproval of ObamaCare ticked up slightly after the speech: to 52 percent from 49 percent in August, while approval slipped slightly, to 42 percent from 43 percent in August.
Those figures comport with these latest Rasmussen findings:
Just before President Obama gave his speech to Congress last week, 44% of voters nationwide supported his health care reform proposal and 53% were opposed. Today, eight days after the speech and a brief bounce, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 44% support the health care plan and 53% are opposed. Absolutely no change.
McCormack links to a June essay by his Weekly Standard colleague Fred Barnes pointing out that Obama had exactly the same effect on public opinion when he made major speeches earlier this year supporting the closing of the Guantanamo detention center and defending the $800 billion stimulus. Polls administered shortly after each speech indicated that public opposition to closing Guantanamo increased while public backing for the stimulus decreased.
So I’ve got some advice for Obama: Mr. President, if you’d like to get your healthcare ideas passed, shut up already! For you, silence seems to be golden.