Health-Law Fight Pivots Toward Midterms - White House Campaign to Highlight Benefits to Families; GOP to Focus on Problems It Says Extend Beyond Website Woes

From The Wall Street Journal:

The fight between the political parties to shape public opinion of the 2010 health-care law is entering a new phase that looks beyond the problems of the enrollment website, amid signs that the law's rocky rollout has damaged Democratic prospects for the next election.

House Republicans will hold three oversight hearings Wednesday on potential problems for small businesses and Medicare Advantage subscribers, among others, with more hearings planned this week and next.

[P]olling suggests new dangers to Democratic candidates if the party cannot reverse public impressions of the law. A recent CNN/ORC poll gave Republicans a narrow edge on the question of which party voters would like to see control Congress—an abrupt change from mid-October, when Democrats had an eight-point lead.

The health law has put many Democrats in a difficult position. After voting for the law, they can draw only so much distance from it. Democratic leaders have decided that the best course is to show voters they are working to fix the law and to fault Republicans for trying to repeal it.

This strategy is driven in part by polling that House Democrats conducted over the summer in 68 contested districts. It found that 55% preferred a Democrat who wanted to fix the Affordable Care Act, compared with 40% who wanted a Republican who would repeal it. "That's been a very durable result through thick and thin, and, obviously, we've had a lot of thin lately," said Geoff Garin, the pollster who conducted the survey. "Even with all the problems associated with the rollout, voters very clearly prefer somebody who wants to fix and improve the law over somebody who wants to totally repeal it."