The Obama Machine Breaks Down

Gingrich Productions
November 13, 2013
Newt Gingrich

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This Friday, November 15, may be a major turning point for the Obama Presidency.

On Friday there will be a key vote on Chairman Fred Upton’s bill, the Keep You Health Plan Act. It’s beginning to look as though a large number of House Democrats are going to break with the President and vote for the Upton bill.

Ominously for the President, the House Democrat rebellion is matched by an even more visible desertion among Senate Democrats.

When Senator Kay Hagan, a North Carolina Democrat, lost her ten-point advantage for reelection since the Obamacare website failed, she had a clear signal from constituents to distance herself from the law. Every Democratic senator up for reelection is feeling similar pressure to vote for something that proves they want to “fix” Obamacare. Even Senator Dick Durbin, the second ranking Democrat, has now come out for doing something to help people keep their insurance as the President (and many members of Congress) promised.

Democrats not up for reelection are also beginning to break with the President. It’s not all that surprising when Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia breaks with his party on the health care law. He is personally very conservative and represents a state that is strongly opposed to President Obama.

It is, however, a very big deal when Senator Diane Feinstein announces she is cosponsoring Senator Mary Landrieu’s bill to change Obamacare. Senator Landrieu is up for reelection, and Louisiana can be a tough state for liberal Democrats. Senator Feinstein is not up for reelection and California is a solidly Democratic state.

When someone as senior, safe, serious, and respected as Senator Feinstein (the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee) starts to split with President Obama over the major policy initiative of his presidency, something significant is underway.

Of course, elected officials in the end have a survival instinct for listening to the folks back home.

Six weeks into the law’s disastrous launch, support for both the program and the President are crumbling. The website problems have been compounded by more and more destructive details emerging about the reality of Obamacare.

Stories of marriage penalties/divorce incentives of up to $10,000 a couple, of people facing massive increases in their premiums, of millions losing their insurance policies, of cancer patients being cut off from their specialists, have all compounded to undermine support for Obamacare.

Recent polls show collapsing support and rising opposition to Obamacare. Only 39 percent approve of the law, while 55 percent oppose, according to the most recent Quinnipiac University poll. An overwhelming majority, 73 percent, support delaying the individual mandate past March 31, something the Democrats have so far refused to consider. Only 19 percent of Americans think the law will make their healthcare better a year from now, while 43 percent think it will make it worse.

The President’s personal credibility has crumbled under the constant reminder that he lied again and again about people keeping their insurance policy if they liked it. His job approval has dropped to 39 percent in the Quinnipiac poll.

Belief in his honesty, too, has fallen ten points since the website collapsed and Americans began to learn he lied to them about keeping their plans. In the same poll, 52 percent said he is not honest and trustworthy.

The generic ballot for Congress is tracking the same pattern of Democratic Party collapse.

On October 1 the Democrats had a nine point lead. Today they are tied.

And Democrats are beginning to conclude the Obamacare problems are going to get bigger, and the public reaction more intense.

Watch the vote on the Upton bill Friday and you will begin to sense the depth of the panic.

If only 20 or so Democrats vote with Upton, there is nothing happening.

If more than 40 Democrats vote with Upton, there is a real crack in the Obama machine.

If over 80 Democrats vote with Upton, there is a stampede away from the President by many of his most loyal supporters.

I will be watching and will report on the meaning of the vote.

It will be fascinating.

Also, Callista and I will answer your questions about Breakout and Yankee Doodle Dandy during our live Facebook Q&A this Friday, November 15th at 2pm ET.

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