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.
Given that this is already happening, this isn’t so much a “prediction” as a statement of fact.
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.
Of course, this is a huge opportunity for democrats to run split-screen ads, if only they would take it.
I’ve been saying this for a while. By November they’ll be taking full credit for it.
Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration.