Not Just California: ACA (psst...that's "Obamacare") gaining traction nationally as well

Thanks to contributor Britt M. for sending me both of the above links.

Between the recent campaign ad by AR Senator Mark Pryor defending his ACA vote (if not actually uttering the "O" word), the good-to-excellent 2015 premium news out of states like Arkansas, California, Connecticut and Mississippi, as well as the recent polling out of CA which finds a spike in approval of the law, it's no wonder that even hard-right Tea Party politicos like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker may be considering setting up their own ACA exchanges after all if they have to:

Watching the tide turn quickly on ‘Obamacare’

About a year ago, Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens bragged to a crowd of fellow Republicans: “Let me tell you what we’re doing [about ObamaCare]: Everything in our power to be an obstructionist.”
 
It was a striking quote that quickly took on national significance. As a rule, policymakers at least pretend to care about working constructively, but here was a state official boasting about his deliberate embrace of obstructionism.
 
And yet, this week, Hudgens said he didn’t really mean it.

“I spoke to a Republican group in Rome, Ga., and I said I was going to be an obstructionist, but I can’t be. I mean, I was talking to a Republican group and I was throwing them some red meat.”

Un-huh. OK, whatever, Ralph.

Then there's this out of the New Yorker:

In Swing States, Is Obamacare an Asset?

To get a look at whether a Republican governor’s policy stances matter, I re-plotted some of the relevant polling data. This time, I used two symbols to represent a governor’s stance on Medicaid expansion (and other aspects of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act):

...According to these data points, Republican governors who bucked their party’s stance and accepted the policy are faring better with voters—in these races, an average of 8.5 percentage points better.

Considering that crusading against Obamacare has been a core part of the G.O.P. playbook, this 8.5-point difference may come as a surprise. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that voters’ sentiments are driven entirely by health-care policy. 

Heck, I just posted about this phenomenon the other day from local candidates here in Michigan:

Both Hugh Crawford and Mike Kowall answered this way: "I don't like Obamacare, I would have voted against it, but I very much support Governor Snyder's Healthy Michigan Initiative, which brought the state over $400 Million in Federal Money."

Of course, Healthy Michigan is the expanded Medicaid under the ACA, but they are giving credit to Snyder to claim they now support expanded health care. Just not Obamacare.

I'm shocked, shocked I say!!