Byron York -- "Voters scared of Obama’s rushed ‘experiments’"

We miss Byron York at National Review, but he's definitely found his niche at the Washington Examiner. Today's missive is spot on and it's reflected in the recent polling data released today:

With one word Monday, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele helped the GOP get back in the fight over health care and the entire Obama agenda. The word was “experiment.”

“Candidate Obama promised change,” Steele said in a speech at the National Press Club. “President Obama is conducting an experiment.” Steele went on to accuse Barack Obama of carrying out dangerous experiments with the nation’s health care, with the economy, with taxpayers’ dollars.

“Experiment” didn’t come from nowhere. “The term bubbled up from a set of focus groups we did with swing voters, independents, soft Republicans and soft Democrats,” says one strategist involved in an extensive RNC research effort nationwide and in key states like Virginia, Colorado and Florida. “It’s something that a vast majority of voters believe is true, that Obama is running what amounts to an experiment with our future.”

The RNC researchers came away convinced that Americans are scared. Certainly voters expected Obama to do things. But they are frightened by the sheer scope of the president’s proposals, the fiscal dangers they present and, perhaps most of all, the astonishing speed with which the administration is trying to enact such fundamental and far-reaching changes.

“When Americans voted for change, it was for a change from the uncertainty and economic unpredictability at the end of the Bush years,” says Alex Castellanos, the Republican message master who helped shape the RNC campaign. “But the president is giving them economic unpredictability on steroids. There is the clear sense out there that he is moving so fast on so many fronts that his health care plan cannot be well thought out.”

You can see those feelings in the latest Washington Post poll in which just 49 percent of those surveyed approve of Obama’s handling of health care. The numbers were eagerly received by Republican leaders on Capitol Hill. “This is a signature issue for him; it’s something he campaigned on, and it’s something that was inevitable in January,” says one key GOP Senate aide. “And now he has less than 50 percent approval on it and independents are running away.”

Just like President Bush had political capital to spend after the 2004 elections, with increased numbers in Congress, Barry is using his up quickly. He used it on the Pork-A-Palloza passed in February, the pork-laden Omnibus spending bill passed in March, and in nominating Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. He's spent, folks.

Liberals laugh when we use a phrase on them that they know is true. "Broad, expansive overreach." That's what Barry did the moment he settled into his new job. He removed CEOs he disagreed with, took over companies after granting them bailout money, and now he's trying to ram through two of the most destructive and invasive pieces of legislation through the Congress. The health care reform would put the government in charge of our health care. No more private insurance, despite what he claims, because the private industry can't compete with the government which doesn't have to show a profit to survive. The cap and tax bill (Crap and Tax) would invite Uncle Sam into our home where Barry and the Congress can dictate to us how much energy we use.

An experiment? Yes it is, and plenty of people are worried -- even scared -- of how much further this experiment is going to go. They have a right to be. Furthermore, they have a right to be outraged. They were sold a bill of goods from a slick, snake-oil salesman. Now, what they're finding out is that his idea of "change" isn't their idea of "change." And his idea of change is 180 degrees contrary to the principles this nation was founded on, and the ideals we have held true for 233 years.

Publius II