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Health-Care Protesters Winning Sympathy: Poll

34% 'more sympathetic' to protesters, 21% less

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 13, 2009 10:58 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Town-hall protesters have succeeded in making some Americans “more sympathetic” to their health care views, a USA Today/Gallup poll finds. Of 1,000 adults surveyed, 34% say they’re now more sympathetic of the protesters’ stance, while 21% say they’re less. Among independents, that grows to a 2-to-1 ratio: 35% are more sympathetic, 16% less, USA Today notes.

“Polls of this nature, however, are notoriously slippery,” notes Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight. “If there were some protest in favor of a policy that I supported, I'd probably tell a pollster that the protest had in fact made me more sympathetic to the cause, even though my mind on the issue was already 100% made up.” Obama adviser David Axelrod is also dismissive of the findings, citing “a media fetish" about the protests.

Police work to keep control of protesters at Portsmouth High School in in Portsmouth, N.H., Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, where President Obama will speak about his health care plan.
Police work to keep control of protesters at Portsmouth High School in in Portsmouth, N.H., Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, where President Obama will speak about his health care plan.   (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
Joan Korman ,left, and Dawn Tabrizi, right, hold protest signs during a rally protesting government managed health care in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009.
Joan Korman ,left, and Dawn Tabrizi, right, hold protest signs during a rally protesting government managed health care in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009.   (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)
Elizabeth Smith ,left, and her husband Spence Smith hold protest signs during a rally protesting government-managed health care in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., August 6, 2009.
Elizabeth Smith ,left, and her husband Spence Smith hold protest signs during a rally protesting government-managed health care in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., August 6, 2009.   (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 38 comments
SilenceDogood
Aug 14, 2009 8:31 AM CDT
Obviously you have a better handle on this than the rest of the country. So riddle me this, how will increasing our health care cost 500b to 1 trillion a year be good for America?
SilenceDogood
Aug 14, 2009 8:24 AM CDT
Queen…. Americans are meeting and protesting the Health Care Bill and you say they are mentally challenged. It must be nice to have such black and white rules in your life, where you can ignore someone else’s point of view and simply dismiss them as substandard humans. It almost sounds racial or biased.
DaytonAve.
Aug 14, 2009 8:19 AM CDT
"losing ground in the fight to kill off seniors, cancer victims and disalowing the poor with medical rights". Why doesn't anyone look at other country's to see that there are no damn death panels. When my grandma finally found a match for her liver transplant her insurance company dropped her because they said it was an"experimental" treatment. I guarantee if she lived in any country in Europe she would have been covered.
Politics • Health • US

 
poll • health care reform • town hall meeting • independents • David Axelrod • protesters • Gallup poll • Nate Silver

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