Obama Picks Up Ground on Health Care

2 years ago

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President Obama's job approval rating stands at 52 percent in a new poll, but more importantly for him is that his supporters are becoming more united around his key policy initiative -- health care reform.

A Public Policy Polling survey conducted Sept. 18-21 finds voters evenly divided on the health care plan with 46 percent opposed and 45 percent in favor. But PPP says that reflects an uptick from its last survey when only 40 percent were in favor. Most of the new support comes from independents who were opposed in a previous poll by 49 percent to 35 percent but now narrowly favor the proposal 46 percent to 44 percent. The margin of error is 3.9 percentage points.

The poll also tested some of the fringe beliefs that have seeped into the political arena.

Fifty-nine percent believe that Obama was, in fact, born in the U.S. contrary to the "Birthers" contention that Obama is not eligible to be president because he was not. Twenty-three percent side with the Birthers and 18 percent are not sure.

Seventy-eight percent reject the conspiracy theory that former President Bush allowed the 9/11 attacks to take place so he'd have a pretext to go to war in the Mideast.

Then there's one about Obama being the anti-Christ, which has spread through e-mail and various Web sites. Seventy-nine percent do not believe Obama is the anti-Christ though there are 10 percent out there who do and another 11 percent who aren't sure.

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Health Care, Polls, Obama Administration, Poll Watch

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