Everyone Hates Health Care Reform

Well, not everyone. But according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, a lot more people oppose health reform now than did nine months ago when Congress began to work on the bill. The number of people who support reform, meanwhile, has remained almost exactly the same:

In the survey, only 33 percent say President Obama's health-reform effort is a good idea, versus 46 percent who consider it a bad idea.

That result is essentially unchanged from last month's poll. However, the number saying that Obama's health plan is a bad idea has increased 20 percentage points since April, when the public supported the reform effort by a 33-26 percent margin.

Like a giant wad of grape Bubble Yum, it seems the longer you chew over it, the less pleasant it gets. This, I think, helps explain how Scott Brown came from behind in Massachusetts. And it's presumably why the White House has recently taken to saying essentially that Democrats need to just go ahead and pass the bill so that they can then work on explaining what's in it and why it's so great. Usually it works the other way around, but hilariously incompetent candidates like Martha Coakley desperate times call for desperate measures.