To say Cantor is an idiot (or liar) is to not say anything new.

These clowns always trot out "The American People" supporting this or that, and almost always the clowns are wrong.

Much like they say that support is strong for the following concepts:

"Civil liberties are less important than protecting you."

"The Rule of Law applies to everyone but us."

"The surge has worked."

"This is nothing but a global apology tour."

"Republicans are trusted to protect America."

"We need to build a wall along the border."

"We need to look into entitlement reform."

"The Attorneys General were fired because that's what every Administration does."

"We need to privatize schooling."

"No one anticipated breach of the levees."

"There is no support for the public option."

Saying something is true does not make it so. But they don't get called on it. Ever.

Once again, reality shows its liberal bias.

Once again it's opposite day in Cantor land...

Yet more proof that the Fox News and Drudges of the world control the perception of what the "public opinion" is in Washington. These guys need to shut off their TV's and stop listening to the loudmouths on the radio. "silent majority" indeed.

Speaking of polls, I love the wording and questions in the little online "poll" advertised by peronalliberty.com on this page.

It's worth pointing out that 59% of Americans support single payer (such as expanding Medicare to cover everyone). See this Feb 2009 CBS/NYT poll:

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/SunMo_poll_0209.pdf

Support for single payer (which is the government pays for everyone) and the public option (which allows people to choose to buy into a government-run health insurance) are about the same -- both have support from roughly 60% of Americans -- but single payer has the advantage of being much simpler, much easier to understand, and less costly.

Why let reality get in the way of good political hackery? Hey, every American Person that Cantor hangs around with opposes the public option; surely they're representative, right?

But I do have to say I find two things even more annoying than Cantor in all of this.

(1) I know it is way too much to ask, but cant every member of the media, every time a Repub says something like that, directly confront them with the poll numbers?

(2) The public at large remain idiots. As Political Wire noted in discussing this same poll, a 47% plurality oppose "Obama's reform plan," despite supporting nearly everything in it when asked by the same pollster on an ala carte basis. WTF? How can you like whats in the plan, but not like the plan?

SILLY WABBITS...which sound byte do YOU think will get more play...the "majority of American people support offering a public option"...OR "It's been soundly rejected"????? Wanna bet it's the latter...I watch way too much TV...listen to way too much radio...and read way too many blogs to be less cynical about how this "game" works. Whatever and however REPUGS frame issues/positions/policies...that is HOW THE MEDIA COVERS IT...they use the language they use (pro-abortion/global warming/not supporting the troops and on and on)...THEY just say stuff and it becomes CW...

"isn't backed up by anything empirical."

Doesn't this describe just about every position held by today's GOP?

Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told CBS this morning that the public option just isn't popular

-and he was in an empty studio, speaking before a robot operated camera.

Oh, wait! There was a CBS 'newsperson' there, and they called him on it!

Didn't they?

Cantor's bravado this morning isn't backed up by anything empirical.

And this, in a sentence, explains why he's the GOP Whip.

-Z

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told CBS this morning that the public option just isn't popular. "You know, in the house, as you know, the bill that will make its way to floor will most likely have what Speaker Pelosi continues to insist is a public option," Cantor said. "You know, that has been resoundingly rejected by the American people."

And I'm sure the crack CBS Talking Head to whom Cantor was talking jumped right in and pointed out the fact that there is no tangible evidence anywhere to support Cantor's statement.

Why is it so hard for someone who is supposed to do things like that for a living to just ask him, "And on what statistical/factual/provable information do you base this statement? In what way has it been "resoundingly rejected? Could you please give us some concrete examples?"

It's not that hard. What he said is a lie. Make him defend it with facts. And if he can't, then call him on the lie. That's what news people are supposed to do.

Wishful thinking on Cantor's part.

The wrong side of history is a bad place to be. Nothing good comes of the refusal to engage reality in an authentic way. Change is the law of life, but these guys are stuck.

Oh and if the American people didn't want Democrats to reform health care, then why were a Democratic president and big majorities in Congress elected last fall?

Republicans helped author this situation through their own incompetence and corruption. They could have led and done it *their way. Instead they allowed a bad situation to get very much worse. If that isn't the height of irresponsibility and a dereliction of their public duty, I don't know what is. Hmm... darn facts.. sure are a pain.

Hey Eric, you know what has ACTUALLY been resoundingly rejected by the American people? The Republican @#$%^*! Party, that's what.

Now we all know the repubs never let a thing like the facts get in the way.

Yeah, yeah, the public wants a public option, big deal. How's the support in Congress, amongst Congresscritters bought and paid for by the healthcare industry?

I wish Alan Grayson would move to the 7th District of Virginia.

A lot of the reason it's hard to get enough Congresscritters to vote for something a majority of the public likes, is the districting system. That allows partisans to get elected and distort overall sentiment.

We need to throw out letting parties draw the lines, and use a computer program etc. Of course there's the lobby money too. It's amazing, given the pressures for lousy governance, how well they do and how close anyway, to things like public option.

You've gotta understand that when Cantor says, "people," he means Conservatives. Liberals and true Independents don't count to them. Discount the Liberals and Independents in the Quinnipiac poll, and you will see that 34% out of 34% of the "real people" in America - the ones that count - are against the public option. So, in his world. Cantor is correct: 100% of them are against it.

Fortunately for reality, there are people who oppose Conservatives.

Hopefully, enough Liberals and true Independents vote YEA, so that ALL of us - including the Conservatives - will have a future reality that includes a public option, to pull us out of our 3rd world status.
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