Not a single Obamacare horror story is true.

[Sava]

Poor Republicans. They were counting on massive failures. Aside from the website getting too much traffic (because Obamacare is so horrible, everyone wants it), the rollout has been smooth... much smoother than examples of the private industry doing something similar.

The only people who are going to vote in 2014 with anti-Obamacare feelings are frothing Republicans who hate Obama anyways.

Even when Republicans find a lady who supposedly lost her health care, it turns out her new plan is better. When confronted with this reality, she just said "I don't believe it".

And that's the real thing. The true idiots are going to be idiots no matter what.

GOP... RIP

[100% Wolf]

If you stand in front of a mirror
and say "barrack obama" three times
obama will appear and euthanize you

THIS STORY IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE. CHECKMATE.

[Sava]

i'm still waiting on those death panels too

[100% Wolf]

Poll: Only Republicans and conservatives say Obamacare is ‘too liberal’

CNN polls on Obamacare take the added step of asking why people disapprove of the law. Result: CNN polls offer a more nuanced view of public opinion on health care than some others do.

Today’s CNN poll finds that 39 percent of Americans favor Obamacare, while 57 percent oppose it. That’s awful, right? But it turns out only 39 percent oppose the law because it’s “too liberal,” while 12 percent say it “isn’t liberal enough.” That’s a total of 51 percent who favor the law or don’t think it goes far enough.

And if you peek into the internals, it turns out that Republicans and conservatives are the only groups who oppose Obamacare as too liberal. A breakdown:

* 67 percent of Republicans, and 60 percent of conservatives, say the law is too liberal. By contrast…

* Among moderates, only 38 percent say it’s too liberal, while 43 percent favor it and another 9 percent say it’s not liberal enough — a total of 52 percent. Breakdown: 38 say it’s too liberal; 52 percent favor it or say it’s not liberal enough.

* Among independents, only 43 percent say it’s too liberal, while 30 percent favor it and another 14 percent say it’s not liberal enough — a total of 44 percent. Breakdown: 43-44.

* Older people are said to fear or dislike Obamacare, but among people who are 50 and up, only 39 percent say it’s too liberal, while 39 percent favor it and another 11 percent say it’s not liberal enough — a total of 50 percent. Breakdown: 39-50.

* Whites are said to lean Republican, but among them, 46 percent say Obamacare is too liberal, while 34 percent favor it and another12 percent say it’s not liberal enough — a total of 46. Breakdown: 46-46.

This may help explain why repeal remains unpopular. This is admittedly speculative, but it seems plausible that those who say the law isn’t liberal enough are saying they want the health system reformed but are not convinced, for a variety of reasons, among them the daily barrage of negative attacks on the law, that Obamacare will get the job done.

In other words, there’s real generalized disapproval of the law here, and no one is saying this isn’t problematic for Dems, but these probably aren’t folks who don’t want reform at all or want to go back to the old system.

By contrast, Republicans and conservatives who say Obamacare is too liberal perhaps see efforts to reform the system along the lines of the Affordable Care Act as unacceptable government overreach, full stop. At the same time, though, Republican candidates and lawmakers seem increasingly aware that their repeal stance is no longer tenable, particularly as enrollment continues to mount and repeal is becoming increasingly synonymous with taking insurance away from millions of people and replacing it with nothing.

Republican candidates and officials can’t fully embrace repeal, but they can’t embrace alternatives such as the Burr-Hatch plan, either. Witness North Carolina GOP Senate candidate Thom Tillis’ struggle to articulate his repeal stance, or Michigan GOP Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land’s vague embrace of the Medicaid expansion. Meanwhile, as Dylan Scott points out, House Republicans appear uncertain how to proceed, lurching back and forth between votes designed to make them look like constructive legislators on health care and votes designed to pander to the repeal-obsessed base.

Of course, all these nuances in national opinion may not mean much for vulnerable red state Dems, since they are, after all, running for reelection in red states. And the 2014 fundamentals are stacked pretty heavily against Dems. So Republicans might be able to muddle through to a majority on a vague ”repeal and replace” message. But there are eight months to go in this election, and enrollment is only going to continue going up, not down.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/03/11/poll-only-republicans-and-conservatives-say-obamacare-is-too-liberal/

Electoral disaster for the Democrats is imminent.

[Sava]

TED CRUZ 2016

[Uncle Sparky]

TED CRUZ 2016

Sounds like risky business...

[Sava]

scientology is a fraud

they should all be in prison

[DinoDoc]

Electoral disaster for the Democrats is imminent.

Is it time for Democrats to embrace the suck?

Florida loss big blow to Democrats’ 2014 hopes

The Florida special election Tuesday was supposed to be an ideal chance for Democrats to show that 2014 isn’t a lost year. Instead, they were dealt another body blow, further weakening their prospects for this year’s midterms.

Democrats couldn’t have asked for a more golden opportunity.

They had the right candidate matchup: Alex Sink, a respected former statewide official who nearly won the governorship in 2010, up against a former lobbyist, Republican David Jolly. They had the right district: A swing region of Florida that appeared poised to elect a Democrat after more than four decades of GOP representation. And they certainly had the money: In a year of staggering GOP spending, Sink far outraised her opponent and got nearly $4 million in help from outside Democratic groups.

In the end, it wasn’t enough. Jolly won by 3,456 votes. And he did it by playing a hand Republicans across the country are expected to follow: Run as an opponent to the president’s unpopular health care law and the Democrat as for it.

Democrats are scrambling to launch a counteroffensive — and if they don’t come up with one fast, Tuesday’s loss could foreshadow a brutal year for the party at the ballot box this fall.

Some Democrats tried their best to downplay the loss. New York Rep. Steve Israel, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, sent out a statement noting that Sink “came closer to victory in a historically Republican district than any Democrat has in decades.”

Others stressed that wasn’t the way to go.

“Dems should not try to spin this loss,” Paul Begala, a onetime top political aide to former President Bill Clinton, wrote on Twitter. “We have to redouble our efforts for 2014.”

Florida’s 13th District is, in many ways, the archetype of the kind of seat Democrats need to win if they’re serious about erasing their 17-seat House deficit anytime soon. Its electorate is older, overwhelmingly white, and politically moderate — in other words, the kind of people who dominate many of the swing congressional districts across the country.

In fact, the district should have been one of the Democratic Party’s most winnable targets. Of the 37 GOP-held seats that the Cook Political Report ranks as the most vulnerable to Democratic takeover, only 11 are more Democratic-friendly than Florida’s 13th. The district has just a narrow GOP registration edge.

“If the Democrats can’t win with their former gubernatorial candidate with 100 percent name ID, where are they going to win?” asked Guy Harrison, a former National Republican Congressional Committee executive director. “When the Democrats look at their playing field, they don’t have too many better seats to target. They don’t have too much of a prayer for winning the majority.”

Some Democrats viewed the race as a template for how the party could win in purple-hued districts. Over the past two months, Sink rolled out an elaborate plan to win over the GOP and independent voters she’d need to take the district, airing ads in which she promised to “work across the aisle. … Bringing Republicans and Democrats together — that’s what I’ve always done, and that’s what I’ll do in Congress.”

But Jolly’s win shows just how politically treacherous the path is for Democrats running in such moderate-to-conservative areas. Rather than moving to the center, Jolly pushed to the right, painting himself as a foe of President Barack Obama and his Affordable Care Act — and presenting Sink as a staunch ally.

“She supports Obamacare. I don’t. I’m David Jolly, and I approve this message because [we] need someone to look out for our interests, not President Obama’s,” he said in one TV ad.

In the face of those kinds of attacks, Sink’s can’t-we-all-just-get-along message just didn’t cut it.

Following Sink’s loss, some Democrats said they’re rethinking their approach to combating the GOP’s Obamacare-centered assault. Sink’s nuanced “fix it, don’t repeal it” message was one that the national Democratic Party is urging many candidates to embrace, but it may have been drowned out by the avalanche of loud Republican attacks.

One Democratic operative predicted that candidates would now find it safer to flat-out state their opposition to Obamacare, saying that, “It’s gonna be tough to get Democrats to support the Affordable Care Act this cycle now with the standard ‘fix the good, get rid of the bad’ schtick.’”

What’s particularly troubling for Democrats about the outcome is that they were facing a particularly flawed opponent in Jolly, a first-time candidate and former Washington lobbyist with a taste for pinstriped suits. In many other House and Senate races, Democrats are hopeful that problematic Republican candidates give them openings in a political environment that’s turned decidedly against them.

But Jolly’s win suggests that may be wishful thinking.

“In this environment, the only thing Democrats can do is hope for Republican opponents who come from professions even more unpopular than Washington lobbyists, and I’m not aware of any tow-truck drivers on the GOP ticket this year,” said Andy Sere, a GOP consultant.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz2vj5UMBHf

[Sava]

but more importantly, what does an obscure election in Florida say about 2016?

LAWL DEMOCRATS WIULL LOSE LAWL

[100% Wolf]

Is it time for Democrats to embrace the suck?


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz2vj5UMBHf

Are we going to make wild-ass guesses based on the results of a single election in one district in one state?

[DinoDoc]

but more importantly, what does an obscure election in Florida say about 2016?

Nothing. It says a lot about 2014 however.

[DinoDoc]

Starting to wish I had taken kentonio up on his bet.

[Sava]

Nothing. It says a lot about 2014 however.

In a few short months, the ACA hysteria has all but died. 2014 elections are still very far away.

I'm predicting mostly a wash. Even very small gains on the part of the Republicans would be a Dem victory.

They haven't expanded their electorate at all. The same racist, angry bunch of hill billies will go out to vote Republican just like in every other election. And being not a presidential election, overall turnout will be lower.

It's not going to be a revolution or even a revival for the GOP. They will continue their slide into political obscurity.

[DinoDoc]

In a few short months, the ACA hysteria has all but died.

They've been saying that since it was passed.

[Sava]

They've been saying that since it was passed.

who?

Aside from the usual republican ass frothery, everyone else has moved on. Turns out, people like health care.