The Associated Press has engaged in a little journalistic malpractice in reporting the latest poll that it produces with GfK Roper. According to reporter Alan Fram, “Obama is winning increased public approval for health care . . .“
Well, no: In the actual poll, 41 percent of respondents reported “total support” to the question, “In general, do you support, oppose, or neither support nor oppose the health care reforms that were passed by Congress in March?” (p. 47), the same result as in the March poll. Plus, the shares of respondents who ”strongly support” versus “somewhat support” are within one percentage point of where they were in March.
To find the ”increased public support” that Mr. Fram reports, you have to go back to September 2009, when ”total support” was only 34 percent. All the positive movement took place between September and October, after which it hovered around 40 percent until a significant bump to 45 percent in June 2010, now vanished.
Read my entire column at National Review Online.
Research and commentary from a former senior executive in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
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