Top Dem Pollster: Pass Health Care Or Face 2010 'Disaster'

Bad messenger, but she's still right. We need to communicate to Democrats in the House that they need to pass health care reform and that there's only one way to do it. The sooner they figure that out, the sooner we can get it over with and pivot to more popular legislation for the mid-term elections.

the top dem pollster is from that loss. that does not speak well for dem pollsters.

She's absolutely right on the money. Whatever she might have done wrong on the Coakley campaign -- and she might not have done anything wrong, she might have been placed in an impossible position -- every Democrat should hear this message.

Every Democrat should understand that failure to pass health care reform would prove their party isn't fit to govern -- and it would result in millions of Democratic activists sitting on their hands and not giving a penny this fall.

"She said the biggest problem related to health care in the Massachusetts race was that voters didn't understand the measure being debated in Washington."

And yet more bullshit about how the real reason behind the bill's unpopularity is because people are ignorant yokels. The bill has been out there for months and months. People know what's in it. That is why it is unpopular you moron.

masanf, there is the tiny possibility that you're the moron here. I know it's inconceivable to you, but it does exist. Lake stated, "But when her team polled on specific elements of the bill voters rated them highly."

Are you telling us all here that you know what specific elements were polled in the survey, and what the responses are? Do you work for Lake? Did you somehow gain access to the polling results?

American citizens on the left and right can be amazingly misinformed about issues facing our country all the time, and this health care bill is no different.

Looking like "BIG TIME CLOWNS"

Man, she must have gotten that insight from some of the polls she commissioned--oh wait, she didn't commission a tracking poll?? But she did blame the White House before the election was over? Wow, let's all gather round to listen to the incompetent lady! I bet she has a lot to teach us about losing elections, her central area of expertise.

One of the "changes I could believe In" was the one about "Transparency". I am not a Democrate but he had me with that one. I wanted to believe that he was different and would take health care to a new level. What did we get, The same old, same old.
Then when the back room deal started; Nelson, Lincoln, Landrieu, I sent a check to Massachusetts to get some change I can believe in for real.

I am a proud liberal who has never voted for a Republican in my life. I have volunteered for, worked for, and donated to countless Democratic candidates in every election since 1992. But I have to say that I've had enough with the spineless incompetence that the Democrats have continued to show.

I met President Obama in March 2003 when he was running in the U.S. Senate primary in Illinois and volunteered my butt off to support his candidacy. I wrote policy papers, organized volunteers on the northside of Chicago, and canvassed virtually every weekend in the bitter cold winter of 2003 (and the warmer spring and summer of 2004). When then-Senator Obama announced his candidacy for President, I was estatic. The day Obama was elected President was a day of great pride for me - not only had I met Mr. Obama, but I thought we finally had a brave leader who could strongly and eloquently communicate the progressive message to the American public. When the Democrats also got a 60-seat majority in the Senate and a large majority in the House, I was even more elated, as I expected real action to address the critical economic, health care, national security, civil liberties, and environmental issues facing our nation.

I am not naive - I did not expect change to be easy in light of the mindless right-wing control of our media and the intransigence of the do-nothing Republicans. And I realize that most elected officials are less liberal than I am, so I did not expect my wish list of liberal policies (such as single payer health insurance) to be passed. But I did expect the Democrats to use the overwhelming mandate the public had given them to actively fight for real reform and improvement for every day Americans, and to challenge the Republicans who have proven themselves to be an illegitimate political party who have little interest in actually trying to govern.

Instead, we have gotten the same spineless, afraid-to-take-a-stand approach to governing and campaigning that has stricken the Democratic Party for the past 30 years. Instead of fighting for the real health care reform and other progressive changes that President Obama was elected on, the Democrats have spent the last year negotiating away every progressive policy proposal in an absurd effort to try to placate folks who do not hold progressive values but instead seek to continue the same conservative policies that got our country into the mess it is in. Instead of loudly and proudly fighting for the progressive policies and values that have made this country great, Democrats continue to cower in fear of criticism from Tea Baggers and Fox News. And the person in charge of our party - President Obama - has done virtually nothing to push back against the conservatives or to bring his own party into line in favor of progressive principles and policies, and is now basically raising the white flag on real health reform because the Democrats now have only 59 Senators instead of 60.

Enough is enough. I have been told for the past two decades that I need to concede my liberal values so that Democrats could win elections and achieve incremental change. Over those two decades, I have seen income inequality escalate, our health care system continue to collapse, our military budgets skyrocket, our social safety net be dismantled, our infrastructure crumble, our civil liberties corrode, and barriers to unionization continue to increase. Yet now that Democrats have an overwhelming majority in the House and Senate, and have the Presidency, they are not fighting for progressive values or even attempting to fundamentally alter the conservative political frame that has gotten our country into this mess.

In short, the Democrats are once again proving that they are too spineless and scared to fight for, much less achieve, the real change this country needs. Continued spinelessness is both horrible for our country and will lead the Democrats back to the political wilderness as the American public wants leadership, not cowardice.

My wife, who is possibly more livid and disappointed with the President and the party than I am, and I have just taken down are picture of President Obama off of our wall. If the President Obama and the Democrats do not start fighting soon, they will lose the rest of my support, as I will be left with no other choice but to conclude that working for Democrats is not the way to achieve the progressive change this country needs.

It's not true. The democrats are poised for another landslide in 2010.