With millions of Americans receiving health insurance cancellation notices and President Barack Obama’s approval and trustworthiness ratings nosediving, Democratic strategists and pollsters say they fear top Democratic congressional leaders are in denial over the electoral consequences of the Obamacare debacle.
“We’re trying to deny what everyone knows is happening,” a veteran Democratic pollster told Politico. “Anybody who is halfway intelligent knows this is a big … problem for us. It’s impossible not to see. We can try to hide our heads in the sand and pretend it’s not a problem, but it is.”
Another Democratic pollster, Paul Maslin, said, “As worried as they were a month ago, we’re worried now.”
Still, Democratic leaders like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) say Obamacare will be an electoral asset, not liability, in next year’s midterm elections.
“I think actually that Democratic candidates will be able to run on Obamacare as an advantage leading into the 2014 elections,” Schultz said.
Similarly, Pelosi has said Democrats “stand by the policy–we’re proud of it.”
A CNN/ORC poll released Monday finds that for the first time, 53% of Americans believe Obama is not honest or trustworthy, and 56% do not admire Obama.
According to the RealClearPolitics poll average, 57% of Americans are against Obamacare.