The polls I saw the other day on TV (Chris Matthews & hardball) also showed a poll saying about 48% (IIRC) are less likely to vote for their Rep if (s)he votes "no" on HC.
I.e., you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
But these are national polls and pretty worthless for Representatives. They need to be looking at polls for their district.
Fern
Yes that was from the NBC/WSJ poll, that voters are more like to vote against any rep who either votes for OR against the HC reform bill. I think this kind of contradictory logic reflects a general disdain for Congress right now. It suggests that it will be rough for incumbents this fall, penalizing the dems more mainly because they have more incumbants. It also suggests that for some voters at least, there is as much or more emotion involved than any sort of coherent logic.
Understanding these poll results, especially on this particular issue, can be a bit like reading tea leaves. Lots of highly divergent numbers from one pollster to the next, and from one poll to the next. Lots of variation in results depending on how a question is asked.
In the NBC/WSJ poll, 36% of the people think the bill is a "good idea," but 46% think that passing the bill is better than passing no bill. The gap there is probably liberals who are disappointed with the bill but think it is better than nothing, but who knows.
- wolf