A new CNBC poll asked half of respondents if they support Obamacare and the other half if they support the Affordable Care Act.

The findings: 46% oppose Obamacare while just 37% oppose the ACA.

“So putting Obama in the name raises the positives and the negatives. Gender and partisanship are responsible for the differences. Men, independents and Republicans are more negative on Obamacare than ACA. Young people, Democrats, nonwhites and women are more positive on Obamacare.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) broke ranks with fellow Democrats and said he’d support a stopgap spending plan that delays the individual mandate in President Obama’s health-care law, Bloomberg reports.

Said Manchin: “There’s no way I could not vote for it. It’s very reasonable and sensible.”

A new Bloomberg poll finds that by a margin of 50% to 43%, Americans say congressional Republicans should accept that Obamacare is the law of the land.

President Obama and Bill Clinton “took to the same stage Tuesday to promote the new health care law that Obama championed after Clinton’s own efforts to reform health care years earlier fell flat,” the AP reports.

“Joining forces under dimmed lights in a hotel ballroom in New York, Obama and Clinton laid out the law’s benefits and its connection to the economy while dispelling what they called disinformation about its downsides. Clinton, acting as host, lobbed the questions; Obama answered with the eagerness of a guest on a daytime TV talk show.”

First Read: “If there was a positive of yesterday’s Barack-Bill conversation, it was to drive home the point that the Democratic Party is united on health care. They might disagree with the message and even a few of the new rules, but they’re mostly united behind the substance and certainly united against making real changes. And as we’ve told you before, when it comes to policy/budget disputes, the party that is united almost always beats the party that isn’t. Indeed, it’s hard to look at the GOP right now in Washington and view them as a party that’s united.”

“Facing a pivotal time for his signature health care law, President
Obama will promote the program during a forum Tuesday hosted by
predecessor Bill Clinton in New York City,” USA Today reports.

First Read: “Also be sure to pay attention to Bill Clinton’s role when the two men
discuss health care at the Clinton Global Initiative. Remember,
Clinton’s previous effort to sell the reform — earlier this month in
Arkansas — got drowned out by Syria. Also, it was now 20 years ago
almost to the day when Clinton himself tried to sell health-care reform
to the country (the famous Health Security Card speech to Congress).
One thing the White House believes is that some of the folks the
president would like to reach on the issue of health care (older
voters) are more likely to listen to an explanation from Clinton than
Obama right now. It’s something they learned during the 2012 Democratic
convention.”

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll finds 6 in 10 Georgians “have little understanding of how Obamacare will affect them or their families, but most of them still don’t like it.”

That pretty much summarizes the problem facing the Obama administration as they work to implement the law.

“It’s awfully hard to repeal Obamacare when a guy named Obama is president of the United States. We’re in a position to stop a lot of what he wants to do. We’re not in a position to undo.”

— Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), quoted by the New York Times.

Wonk Wire reviews the key indicators.

“Whether it’s Custer, whether it’s kamikaze, or whether it’s Gallipoli or whatever, we are going to lose this.”

— Rep. Peter King (R-NY), in a CNN interview, continuing his vocal opposition to a plan by fellow Republicans to defund Obamacare.

Ron Brownstein:
“Nothing will shape Obama’s legacy more than whether he can
successfully implement, and politically entrench, his massive health
reform plan. Obama has three years to fortify the law with enough
support to make repeal difficult, even if Republicans win unified
control of Washington in 2016.” He adds, “No other federal entitlement
has faced such ferocious opposition after passage. Although many
conservatives initially raged against Medicare, that fire extinguished
quickly when benefits started flowing in 1966.”

“Without drawing moral equivalence, it’s fair to say the
health care law is facing more widespread defiance than any federal
initiative since the Supreme Court ordered public schools to desegregate
in its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.”

Wonk Wire: Health exchanges face continued glitches.

USA Today editorial: “Republicans’ obsession
with overturning ObamaCare is getting sillier and more dangerous at the
same time. Now that they’ve failed to kill the law every way the rules
allow — in Congress, the Supreme Court and in a presidential election —
the opponents are taking hostages and, in effect, threatening to shoot
them if they don’t get their way. Unfortunately for everyone involved,
the hostages are the federal government and the U.S. economy.”

Charlie Cook: “Republicans eager for a fight need to realize that some things are not
to be trifled with. A nation that does not pay its bills and fails to
meet its obligations for spending is hardly following a conservative
approach to fiscal policy.”

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 62% of Americans say they do not have the information necessary to understand the changes the law will bring.

Nonetheless, 52% still say they oppose the law and 55% disapprove of the law’s implementation.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told CNN that it was irrational to believe Republicans have any chance of repealing Obamacare by defunding it.

Said McCain: “I can tell you that in the U.S. Senate, we will not repeal or defund Obamacare. We will not. And to think we can is not rational.”

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) joined other Republican lawmakers in calling for Senate conservatives to put up a strong fight against President Obama’s health-care law, the Washington Post reports.

When asked about comments made by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), he said, “It’s time for them to pick up the mantle and get the job done.”

“Cruz has spent two months agitating Republicans in the House and Senate to risk shutting down the federal government in the effort to strip funding for implementing Obamacare. After Boehner announced Wednesday his intention to take that risky strategy, Cruz issued a statement that Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-NV) likely had the votes to strip that language in the Senate and said it was up to House Republicans to “stand firm” when the legislation bounces back across the Capitol to them.”

“We reached a turning point, and we have to speak for our base that isn’t being heard any more. There isn’t unanimity anymore; you can’t deliver a bloc…. Blind loyalty–I don’t think that’s an option anymore. People are going assert what they think is best for their base, their district, and more importantly, how the Democrats are going to look going into 2014.”

— Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), quoted by National Journal, on liberal Democrats starting to take on President Obama.

House Republicans “expressed outrage” with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) when he admitted Republicans did not have the votes in the Senate to defund Obamacare, CNN reports.

“The reaction from House Republicans and senior GOP leadership aides to Cruz’s latest statement on the matter was swift and angry, both about Cruz’s lack of confidence in a vote and his urging of the House to ‘stand firm.'”

Josh Marshall: “So he’s created this monster he can’t control. Only he was the monster the last crew created. I can’t keep up. But as the Bible says, the Popcorn shall passeth.”

The conservative Republican Study Committee is preparing to unveil its bill to fully replace President Obama’s health care law, Roll Call reports.

“Though this will won’t be the first Obamacare repeal-and-replace proposal floated by individual GOP lawmakers in either chamber of Congress, the RSC bill has the potential to gain traction, given the conservative group’s size and influence.”

With health insurance exchanges set to open on October 1, a new USA Today/Pew Research survey finds that 53% of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s health care law while 42% approve.

Key findings: “The 53% of the public who disapprove of the law are divided over what they would like elected officials who oppose the law to do now that the law has begun to take effect. About half of disapprovers (27% of the public overall) say these lawmakers ‘should do what they can to make the law work as well as possible,’ but nearly as many (23% of the public) say these officials ‘should do what they can to make the law fail.'”

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has the reason why: “Overall, nearly 70% of poll respondents said they didn’t understand the health-care overhaul passed by Democrats in March 2010 or only understood a part of it.”