O and Ocare Sinking Like Rocks

Arguing that "you'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at the unraveling of Obamacare," Jonah Goldberg describes the "Obamacare Schadenfreudarama" as "one of the most enjoyable political moments in my lifetime."

Alas, the English language is not well equipped to capture the sensation I’m describing, which is why we must all thank the Germans for giving us the term “schadenfreude” — the joy one feels at the misfortune or failure of others. The primary wellspring of schadenfreude can be attributed to Barack Obama’s hubris — another immigrant word, which means a sinful pride or arrogance that causes someone to believe he has a godlike immunity to the rules of life. ... In every tale of hubris, the transgressor is eventually slapped across the face with the semi-frozen flounder of reality.

Polls show the downward spiral for Obama and Obamacare. Last week it was the Quinnipiac poll. Obama's approval rating fell to 39%, and disapproval of Obamacare has risen to 55%. The shocker: 54% of young voters disapprove of Obama, and 51% of them disapprove of OCare.

This week it's the ABCNews/WashingtonPost poll. Obama's approval rating is down to 42%, and 57% disapprove of Obamacare. While hiding today's actual poll numbers, here's how the news story describes young adult voters:

At the same time, there’s also one core support group in which Obama is hurting – young adults, a group he won by an historic margin in 2008, and strongly again in 2012. The president’s overall approval rating has lost 23 points among adults age 18 to 29 since January, his steepest loss in any group. Their view that the country’s headed in the wrong direction has gained 20 points since May. And in just the past month, opposition to the health care law has jumped by 16 points among under-30s, with strong opposition up by 21 points.

Rhetoric has yielded to reality now that young healthy adults are getting hit by a law specifically designed to force them to "share their wealth" with older and less healthy folks. As Fox News reports, even college students are either seeing soaring premium cost increases in their previously cheap college health plans, or finding them cancelled entirely.

All of which explains this trend line produced by Gallup polling:



The pity is that it took so long for so many Americans to figure out what conservatives knew all along.

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UPDATE: More bad news for the president. Politico reports this additional tidbit from the ABC/WashPo poll:

As more bad poll numbers continue to pour in for President Barack Obama, a new survey finds that if the 2012 election matchup were held this month, Mitt Romney would hold the edge with the voters.

Romney topped Obama 49 percent to 45 percent among registered voters in the Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday. Among all Americans, the 2012 rivals would be tied, at 47 percent.

[see also President Romney? Yes, If The Election Were Held Today ]