Last Call

The health care legislation is getting slightly more popular.  It, if you'll excuse the pun, has stopped bleeding out, but there's still a lot the Dems need to do to try to convince the public that this was the right decision to make for the country.

The latest Associated Press-GfK poll on Obama's top domestic achievement finds support for the new overhaul has risen to its highest point since the survey started asking people about it in September - six months before it became law.

The results now: 45 percent in favor, 42 percent opposed. That's a significant shift in public sentiment considering that opposition hit 50 percent after Obama signed the health plan into law in late March and that in May, supporters were outnumbered 39 percent to 46 percent.

"I thought when people began to realize what was in the health care package that they would see it's a good, solid program and that would dispel some of the misinformation," said Brigham Young University English professor Claudia Harris, 72, of Orem, Utah.

Electrical contractor Kerry Eisley of Moscow, Pa., said he thinks people are starting to get nuts-and-bolts information on how the law affects them.

"If we can insure more people across the United States and get the cost of health care down, I think that's a better thing," said Eisley, 43, a Republican who supports the plan, which passed without the vote of any GOP lawmaker.

At least the measure is above water instead of minus 7.  That's a noteable turnaround, but it's going to take some time and some convincing, not to mention actual cost savings and benefits kicking in, to convince the folks in the middle.  The folks on the right, well...for the most part that's going to be impossible.  But...I'm sure Obama and company will take "slight plurality".

Ironically, health care legislation seems to be headed back for the 50% mark, which is about where Obama's approval is floating around these days.  That actually makes a lot of sense.  One defines the other at this point in the Obama legacy story.