National Journal Staff | June 28, 2012
Let’s dispense with the high-minded legal and social analysis of the Supreme Court's health care ruling and proceed directly to what matters in the N2K Presidential Race memo: Good or bad for President Obama and Mitt Romney? Good for Obama, probably. Less good for Romney, probably.Good for the president because the verdict by the Court, delivered and validated by a George W. Bush appointee, puts the stamp of approval of the highest legal authority in the land on his signature legislation, and anything else would’ve dredged up all the old, tired “legitimacy” arguments.And some good for Romney, too, because now Republicans have one means left to rid themselves of the animating spirit behind the tea party’s rise in 2009 and 2010: the ballot box. They’ll vote with their feet, the base will.“I think this is going to elect Mitt Romney the 45th president of the United States,” Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., told CNN after the decision, describing himself as “shocked.”But the voters who matter aren’t in Gingrich’s district, up against the Alabama border. They’re in Nevada and Michigan and Missouri and Pennsylvania. And most of those folks weren’t on SCOTUSblog or Twitter or glued to one of the cable networks that botched the news this morning.Their eye-twitches are still more about whether they’ll have a job before November, or after.-- Jim O’Sullivan@JOSullivanNatJo
