Press

Will Marshall in U.S. News & World Report:

But despite the GOP opposition, the Democrats do have cause for some optimism. Voters are about evenly split over Obama’s plan in Congress, with 41 percent in favor and 43 percent opposed, and many Americans’ views remain in flux. “Public opinion is not immutable,” says Will Marshall, president of the centrist Progressive Policy Institute. “Opinions change along with conditions.” He agrees that final passage of healthcare will provide an important opportunity for Obama and the Democrats to trumpet their ability to govern on their own. Few if any GOP legislators are expected to vote for the Democratic plan.

Marshall adds that the GOP is pigeon­holing itself as the obstructionist party. “The Republicans have gone so far off the rails” that many conservatives are “treating the commander in chief as an alien,” Marshall argues. “The Republican mainstream doesn’t seem to be there anymore. Who are the elders who say the party needs to regain its balance? . . . They let their crackpots loose, and to me, that’s scary.” He was referring to some members of the tea-party movement and others who have harshly criticized Obama in personal and political terms.

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