GOP pollster offers vision for undoing the health law

Pollster Bill McInturff said a campaign strategy that capitalizes on Americans' tepid support for the overhaul and their ongoing worries about it could be "politically crippling" for Democrats. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee chairman points to a potential chink in Mitt Romney's armor.

National Journal: Republican Pollster Charts Pathway For Health Care Repeal, Obama Defeat
Concern that the new health care law could kick voters off their private insurance gives the GOP its best chance at building support for repeal — and sinking President Obama's reelection hopes — a Republican pollster said on Tuesday. In a conference call with reporters, Bill McInturff said that a survey he conducted on behalf of the conservative group Revere America shows a bare majority of support for repealing the bill, 51 percent. That's a net negative for Democrats, he said, but not a millstone around their necks in 2012. ... According to the poll, 41 percent of people who work for small businesses — companies that employ 50 or fewer people — are worried the exchanges will take away their insurance when they come online in 2012. A campaign that plays to those concerns could increase the opposition to the health care law to levels that would be politically crippling for Democrats, McInturff said (Roarty, 3/8).

Roll Call: Former RNC Chairman Not Sold On Romney
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has to fight off an elephant if he expects to capture the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Monday on ABC's "Top Line." Steele conceded that Romney's health care overhaul in Massachusetts inspired President Barack Obama's health care law. "I'm sure that's a talking point his team does not want to have out there," Steele said of Romney. "But the reality of it is that it is [the inspiration]" (Peoples, 3/8).