Jennifer Haberkorn’s recent article in Politico, “Republican Party Eyes Choking Health Law Funding,” reveals far more about her merits as a journalist and health care “expert”, than it does about the GOP’s strategy of defunding Obamacare.  In anotherwise dreary and predictable piece, one passage stands out:

Thus far, Republican efforts to repeal or defund the law have fallen largely on deaf ears. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Thursday found that 35 percent of the public opposes the law, down from 41 percent last month. Those who oppose the law overwhelmingly support repealing it. Support for the health care plan has hovered at about 50 percent.”

One more time, please?  I may not be a journalist or a member of the juice box mafia, but this appears to me to be one of the more egregious examples of cherry picking that I’ve seen in the mainstream media in recent times.

According to Real Clear Politics’ Health Care Polling average- opposition to Obamacare is 14.8 points higher than support.

Polling Data

Poll

Date

Sample

For/Favor

Against/Oppose

Spread
RCP Average

7/8 – 7/25

–

37.0

51.8

Against/Oppose +14.8
Rasmussen Reports*

7/24 – 7/25

1000 LV

37

58

Against/Oppose +21
CBS News

7/9 – 7/12

966 A

36

49

Against/Oppose +13
PPP (D)

7/9 – 7/12

667 RV

40

53

Against/Oppose +13
Pew/National Journal

7/8 – 7/11

1001 A

35

47

Against/Oppose +12

Not even the Democrat firm of Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows support for Obamacare greater than its opposition.  Indeed, the Kaiser Family Foundation poll is considered such an outlier that it is not even included in Real Clear Politics’ exhaustive sample of polls on the recently passed health care bill.

Even pollster.com’s aggregate, which does include Kaiser’s poll- shows that opposition to Obamacare is greater than its support, 45.4% to 41.7%, and it is only this close because of Kaiser’s inclusion.

I’m no Nate Silver, but it would seem to me that it’s the Kaiser poll which is the outlier.  Furthermore, Kaiser has consistently polled support for Obamacare higher than every other poll.  Of course the fact that Kaiser has expended a great deal of resources and energy on supporting Obamacare leads one to suspect that perhaps it might be a bit unreliable.

Not to our intrepid “health care reporter” Jennifer Haberkorn however.  In her piece, not only does she not raise any skepticism about Kaiser’s poll, but it is the only one she cites in support of her contention that Republicans, despite the fact that it’s wildly out of whack with every other poll on this issue.

health-care-protest

Given my charitable disposition, I might be tempted to chalk this up to sheer laziness- but since it took me all of ten seconds to google the current state of polling on Obamacare, I’m more inclined to think that Jennifer was guilty of far worse, namely trying to find evidence to support her  “meme.” Unfortunately for her, she might as well have chosen a Research 2000 poll as evidence that “…Republican efforts to repeal or defund the law have fallen largely on deaf ears.”

It is quite typical in academia to find researchers cherry-picking data to support their theses, but they are usually writing in areas where the data is less numerous and available.  They also tend to couch their arguments with such phrases as “it might be the case that” or “on the one hand”.  Not our Jennifer though!  According to her, the public has shut its ears to those silly Republicans who want to take away or somehow de-fund this ever popular Obamacare.   What proof does she have?  Why this Kaiser poll of course. A few decades ago, she might have gotten away with such manipulation- this is no longer the case.  And more unfortunate for her, this shoddy journalism undercuts her credentials as a “health care reporter” as opposed to a “meme advocate”.

In short, Haberkorn has made a definitive statement (support for Obamacare is much greater than its opposition) based on the evidence of one poll — a rogue outlier — without so much as a slight indication that her thesis is generally unsupported by all other recent polling on this issue.

In that case – how does she explain what happened in Missouri yesterday?

The big question is not so much why or how did Haberkorn write this, but where were her editors at Politico?  Of course, the answer to this question can be found in the very title of her piece “Republican Party eyes choking health law funding.” Choke- get it?  Not defund, but choke.  Because in the worldview of Politico- the GOP’s legislative strategy is comparable to physical violence.

Is this the best they can do?