“In case there was any doubt, a new poll confirms that the public really, Mr. President, honestly, no kidding, wants you to stop!” That’s what Obama’s staff should be telling him when they put this on his desk:

A 55% majority of Americans say President Obama and congressional Democrats should suspend work on the health care bill that has been on the verge of passage and consider alternatives that would draw more Republican support, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. …

An overwhelming 72% of those surveyed Wednesday say Brown’s victory “reflects frustrations shared by many Americans, and the president and members of Congress should pay attention to it.” Just 18% say it “reflects political conditions in Massachusetts and doesn’t have a larger meaning for national politics.”

And if that isn’t enough to stir the president, the survey also shows that Democrats shouldn’t have made health care their top priority. (“Forty-six percent say health care is important but there are other problems they should address first, and 19% say health care shouldn’t be a major priority.”)

You’d think the White House would take all that to heart. But increasingly it seems that it matters less what Obama says and what his flacks echo. It’s the rank-and-file membership of the Democratic House and Senate caucuses who seem to be putting on the breaks, talking about slowing things down, looking for a “stripped down” version of health care (which “would amount to a major retreat from Obama’s initial vision of near-universal coverage — a stunning comedown made necessary by Republican Scott Brown’s Senate win”), and sounding like they really have digested the Massachusetts election results.