GOP Pollster Predicts Republicans Will Shift Their Tone On Obamacare

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, accompanied by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., right, talks to reporters following a Republican strategy meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 29, 2014. B... House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, accompanied by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., right, talks to reporters following a Republican strategy meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 29, 2014. Boehner said Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., did the right thing by stepping down from the the House Financial Services Committee after he was indicted Monday for evading taxes. (AP Photo) MORE LESS
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Well, the jig is up: A GOP pollster predicted Friday that Republican rhetoric on Obamacare will change once they have cleared their primaries.

The New York Times reported on the comments made by Bill McInturff, a partner in Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm, at a conference for the American Association for Public Opinion Research in California.

“After the primaries, expect a shift in Republican candidates’ rhetoric against Obamacare,” McInturff said.

“Only few want to repeal the law; most want to fix and keep it,” he continued, likely referencing the consistent polling that has shown Americans would rather improve the law than repeal it.

He added that the law could still be a net negative for Democrats in 2014, but predicted the Republican shift because its approval numbers have improved in recent months.

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Notable Replies

  1. Given that this is already happening, this isn’t so much a “prediction” as a statement of fact.

  2. After the primaries, expect a shift in Republican candidates’ rhetoric against Obamacare

    Yes, they will start taking credit for it in states that run their own exchanges. For example, in Kentucky, the state exchange is much more popular than “Obamacare”, even though they are same thing. But voters don’t get that, and the GOP will cynically take advantage of it.

    They have used this page from their playbook on Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. They oppose the policy, but that doesn’t prevent them from hammering their Democratic opponents about bogus Medicaid cuts in Obamacare.

    Basically, they are shameless, and will do, or say, anything to win.

  3. Avatar for paulw paulw says:

    Of course, this is a huge opportunity for democrats to run split-screen ads, if only they would take it.

  4. I’ve been saying this for a while. By November they’ll be taking full credit for it.

    Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration.

  5. From “Repeal and replace!”, to “We thought of it first!”

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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