Well. That’s certainly — uhm — bullish of him.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer predicted on Tuesday that Obamacare will not prove to be the massive political liability for Democrats that Republicans hoped ahead of the 2014 midterm elections.

“I think health care at worst is going to be a neutral in this election,” said Hoyer (D-Md.) during a press conference. “This is not the holy grail of this election.” …

He even predicted that Democrats could pick up seats during the November elections. …

“We have good candidates, we’re raising good money,” Hoyer said, citing competitive races in Florida and Arkansas.

And that’s despite this morning’s WaPo/ABC poll showing President Obama’s approval rating hitting new lows and a public largely unenthused by ObamaCare’s ostensible victories. Democratic strategist James Carville, however, was somewhat less bullish about the situation on Fox News this evening:

“I saw that poll. My day started out about as good as Donald Sterling’s,” Carville quipped. “The poll was not good. I’m not one of these people that says ‘oh you know trash the poll’ or something like that. The poll was not good on a variety of fronts.” …

“Look. We are in a six year term, we have a high wrong track number,” Carville said before expressing his hope that Obamacare’s popularity will recover. “But right now, I will be the first to concede we are in somewhat of a difficult position.”