SETUP GRAF FAIL!   WaPo 's Dana Milbank traveled to Richmond, Virgina to watch Republican Whip Eric Cantor talk to his constituents about health care. Seems to have been a boring meeting. Hence Milbank's angle--the New Civility! ("The Health-Care War Gets a Little More Civil.") But to make this a man-bites-dog story, Milbank needed a paragraph explaining why we should have expected something different from Cantor.("The remarkable thing ... is what didn't happen.")  Here's what Milbank came up with:

Was this the same Eric Cantor who was shown using his BlackBerry [**] during Obama's speech to Congress? The same one who, on Fox News after the speech, accused Obama of using a "smoke screen" and "hyperbole" and lacking "some adult sense of responsibility"? The very same Cantor who, in the National Review last week, urged Obama to "read the bill" and again raised the problem of illegal immigrants?

Cantor accused Obama of a "smoke screen"?  And "hyperbole"?  Surely that's against House Rules. ... Maybe the rule against cliched rhetoric so bland David Gergen wouldn't employ it if he'd overdosed on Benadryl! Ha ha ha ha ... Plus Cantor had raised a substantive "problem" with the bill. In an article. In National Review. The man will clearly stop at nothing. Indeed, with that track record, it's "remarkable" if Cantor fails to start foaming at the mouth and chewing on the surrounding flesh. Man doesn't bite dog! ...  

 **-- Cantor later said he was reading the speech text on his Blackberry and making notes , which is almost believable. ... 11:50 P.M.

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What's Eating Craig Crawford? If this is the embargoed poll that CQ 's Craig Crawford claims demonstrates that Obama "owns September" (and is making "significant progress in his media blitz" against the "'dumbikazes' of August") then ...  well, I accuse him of "hyperbole." The NBC- WSJ poll shows a plurality opposing the Obama plan by 41-39, which is better than the previous month's 42-36, but not by that much. ... True, the poll was taken far enough out from Obama's big speech that any "bounce" might well have subsided--so this could be a residue of actual increased support. Still! It's small! ... I always thought Crawford was bland and reliable. Has he contracted the MSNBC virus? ...

Update--Three Points and a Cloud of Dust: If Crawford was talking about   this poll from Democracy Corps--well, it's the same deal: "Support for Health Care Reform Up Slightly," but still three points behind (47-44). And the Democracy Corps poll was taken much closer to the President's speech--starting only three days after-- meaning that it may reflect a now-dissipated "bounce." ...

Backfill: Nate Silver's informal betting benchmark for speech success , remember, was whether it would "increase approval for the Democratic health care package by 5 or more points"--though it's no clear whether he meant "net" points or an actual 5-point rise in the percentage approving. Obama met the former standard, barely, only in the Democracy Corps poll. On the latter benchmark--a 5 point increase in actual approval--forget it. ... And forget about the "or more." ... Instead, pro-Dem pollwatchers are now  spinning madly to make a loss-by-a-field-goal seem like a tie . Silver: "There's certainly not any tailwind of public support behind health care reform -- that was squandered many months ago. " ...  11:49 P.M.

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