I’ll let folks draw their own conclusions and pick their own fights for the most part, but I thought this poll (link changed to pdf of Field Poll) was pretty interesting (favorable/unfavorable/net):
California Nurses Association/Nurses: 53/15/+35
California Hospital Assn./Hospitals: 33/30/+3
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: 40/40/0
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez: 20/29/-8
Chamber of Commerce/Business Groups: 25/36/-11
News Media: 28/46/-18%
Republican State Legislative Leaders: 22/48/-26
Health Insurance Companies: 16/55/-39
I will throw a few rather obvious ones out along with one that may be less so. One- people don’t care much for politicians. Two- they care even less for the media, which is interesting as the media keeps cutting back on news coverage. Three- they HATE insurance companies, which makes me wonder why anyone keeps trying to keep them in the equation.
Also, CNA’s numbers are pretty darn impressive. Some of that is that people just like nurses I would imagine. But average Californian on the street, if they have an actual opinion of CNA proper, it’s likely to be an opinion on single-payer. Which makes me think that, given the opportunity, people might be pretty supportive of single-payer.