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The Unofficial Official Word on Public Opinion

As first reported by Chris Cilizza in the Washington Post, pollster Joel Benenson is circulating a memo arguing that health care reform has become more popular. Writes Benenson:

When comparing the Pollster.com average from the three months prior to the President’s State of the Union speech to the five weeks since then, the data shows a 13-point shift in “favoring vs. opposing health care.” (The averages for both of these time periods filters out Rasmussen polling, which Pollster.com has described as having a strong “house effect” that leans Republican). ... More noteworthy is that recent polling that shows solid majorities of Americans want action on this issue and reject the status quo as an acceptable course ...

If you read my colleague Jonathan Chait's blog, there's nothing new here. But Benenson is, as Cilizza notes, Obama's "pollster of choice." So you can consider this unofficial official word as it were. And you can read the actual memo by clicking on this link.