Rasmussen: GOP Takes Lead on Health Care

By Gene Schwimmer

From Rasmussen (emphasis mine):

For the first time in over two years of polling, voters trust Republicans slightly more than Democrats on the handling of the issue of health care. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that voters favor the GOP on the issue 44% to 41%.

Democrats held a four-point lead on the issue last month and a 10-point lead in June.

With this dramatic reversal on which party the American people trust to handle health care, Republicans now lead Democrats on nine of the 10 issues the people deem most important: health care, the economy, education, national security, abortion, social security, taxes, immigration and government ethics. On only one issue, Iraq, do the Dems manage to eke out a tie.

And on Rasmussen's Generic Congressional Ballot:

Republican candidates have now matched their biggest lead over Democrats of the past several years....

[...]

The level of support for Democratic candidates is unchanged this week, but backing for GOP candidates rose one point from a week ago. This is now the eighth straight week Republicans have led on the Generic Ballot.

Today's ointment does have a fly in it, though. On Rasmussen's Daily Presidential Tracking Poll, the president's Approval Index narrows to -6 and his overall approval rises above 50%, to 51% for the first time since August 3. Strangely, this comes as Obama hits a new low, 52%, on Gallup.

As I have cautioned in other blogs, Republicans need to keep their eyes on the ball and eschew overconfidence. Boehner and the ever-crafty McConnell (from whom Boehner could learn some valuable lessons) have been playing their cards close to their vests and this is a good thing. Taking my cue from the Congressional Generic Ballot, I would want to see Obama below 50% for eight weeks running on both Rasmussen and Gallup and at 45% or lower in September 2010, on both polls, to feel confident of the advent of change that I can believe in.

But Republicans certainly can take heart in knowing that, apparently, even in the deafening static of a media that slobbers over Obama with every breath they take, they can get their message out.

And if the latest numbers are any indication, the American people are listening.