The ACA Didn't Sink Cooch; Extremism Did

Ken Cuccinelli: "What, me worry?"

This analysis from the Washington Post is easily the best I've seen regarding why Terry McAuliffe smoked Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia governor's race Tuesday. It has a lot less to do with anger over the Affordable Care Act and more to do with Cuccinelli's extremism, according to Greg Sargent in his Plum Line column.

Pollster Geoff Garin was quoted thusly: “With the exception of a brief spike during the government shutdown, Terry’s lead was never less than two points, and never greater than four. It was a stable race.” What happened in the last few days, when the lead shrunk by half was a natural, reverting to the real difference.

Says Garin, “We tested Cuccinelli’s brag that he was the first attorney general to sue to stop Obamacare. That actually made ... voters less likely to support him than more.”

Cooch, of course, wants the ACA to be history, but Virginians--even those who don't like the law, says Garin--see another option. “A majority disapproved of the Affordable Care Act, but in Virginia, as elsewhere, we found that a lot of these voters want to fix the law. Cuccinellis’ position on Obamacare actually supported what we were saying about him, which is that he was extreme and supported a national Tea Party agenda.”

ACA will be fixed top to bottom, starting with the website (and remember, you don't have to go to the website to register; you can do it by phone and that's not broken). We'll see what the reaction is when people who weren't insured become insured and people who are paying monster premiums for substandard insurance pay less and get more. That'll be the test of the ACA.

(Photo: groupthink.jezebel.com)