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Frankly, I hope Obamacare DOES die, just not because of the public mandate. - Edit 5

Before modification by Joel at 11/02/2012 07:23:23 AM

It's from PRRI, the allegedly non-partisan group which is headed by a staff of liberals that, IMO, reeks of 'new age' spiritualism. Their founder, <a href="http://progressiveandreligious.com/about.html">Robert P. Jones</a>, pretty much describes their motives, the others I looked up were much the same. Doesn't mean they're wrong, though I did look up their methodology and questionnaire and it didn't exactly wow me, but it sounds to me like they got the results they wanted to see. I've seen other polls that show Obama hurt badly amongst catholics over this but frankly it's too soon to see if it will have much impact.

Except, and I haven't seen anyone mention this yet here or elsewhere, though I'd think it kinda a big deal... Justice Anthony Kennedy, the dude who will almost certainly decide if Obamacare lives or dies... is Roman Catholic. So, strikes me that in spite of some people crowing over this, when the times comes for Kennedy to decide how he feels about the whole mandatory coverage thing this might cross his mind in a less than positive fashion.

If we throw out public mandates income taxes are illegal; Obamacare is just an awful bill. This particular issue illustrates that well, but so do many others; if we think every American should have healthcare, consider it a civil right (like every other civilized country on the planet,) we will create a public option. Until then we are just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic while the private insurers who made this mess despite not providing so much as an aspirin themselves gleefully rub their hands over their trillion dollar windfall. That is if we just count the federal portion, without all the money they will get from people who do not qualify for government help but are still forced to buy insurance they need but cannot afford.

As to the poll, again, even if totally non-partisan with perfect methodology, there is not enough relevant data to say how the drama affects the critical demographics. But you make a good point regarding the SCOTUS; given two-thirds of it is Catholic, picking a fight with the Vatican over Obamacare might be a mistake.

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