Obama Strikes Back HARD-- Gets Bounce In Polls

I couldn't think of a better sports analygy for President Obama's triumphant health care week than this old clip of Muhammad Ali knocking out George Foreman after spending the earlier rounds using his rope-a-dope to allow his opponent to punch himself out:

His speech Wednesday on healthcare reform was as clutch as Michael Jordan's NBA finals-clinching basket in Utah against the Jazz or Eli Manning's last-second touchdown drive that propelled the New York Giants past the favored New England Patriots.
And don't think his speech didn't make a big difference in the polls. Check this out:

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 9/7/2009-9/10/2009. All adults. MoE 2% (Last weeks results in parentheses):

FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE NET CHANGE
PRESIDENT OBAMA 56 (52) 39 (43) +8

PELOSI: 33 (32) 59 (59) +1
REID: 30 (31) 59 (58) -2
McCONNELL: 18 (19) 64 (63) -2
BOEHNER: 14 (15) 62 (63) 0

CONGRESSIONAL DEMS: 38 (39) 57 (56) -2
CONGRESSIONAL GOPS: 17 (18) 70 (69) -2

DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 40 (39) 51 (52) +2
REPUBLICAN PARTY: 22 (23) 68 (69) 0

The Daily Kos diarist continues:

Notice, if you will, that the major leap in the President's numbers occurred not on Thursday (the first full day of polling after his health care address to Congress), but on Wednesday, when his single-day sample in the tracking was 62/36, the best numbers he has seen in over a month. His Thursday numbers appear also to have been strong, probably in the 59/39 60/38 range, if my algebraic skills are accurate (update: After receiving the one-day numbers from R2K, it is apparent my algebraic skills grade out at around a "B+").

This could be attributed to one of two things. One theory, which might be supported by the insta-polls from Wednesday night, is that this was the first sign of support after the health care address. At least some of the interviews would have been conducted post-speech, and even by Wednesday afternoon, the tenor of his address was fairly common knowledge. Seeing how the balance of Obama's bounce this week comes from Democrats (back up to 85/9 this week, a thirteen-point net improvement), perhaps the base knew by Wednesday where Obama was headed on health care, and were pleased.

Another theory, however, is that this was, in part, a reaction to the education speech on Tuesday.

Having Republicans and Obama critics raise awareness of the speech through their incessant histrionics, the relatively benign speech might have allayed the fears of Independents. A lot of folks, you have to believe, came into the day expecting socialist brainwashing, only to be pleasantly surprised when none occurred. Indeed, while the base came home, Obama's improvement this week was also propelled by a net six-point bump among Independents (among whom Obama's favorability returned to 60%).

Now let's translate this into the passage of a real healthcare reform with a robust public option.