Even though Team Obama and the Democrats are celebrating Thursday’s Supreme Court decision upholding ObamaCare, numerous arguments can be made that this decision is actually bad news for President Obama’s re-election prospects. Chief among them is the Supreme Court has re-branded ObamaCare as a tax.
Hearken back to President Obama’s September, 2009 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos where Obama vehemently denied that the health care individual mandate was a tax. Look for sound bites from this landmark interview to appear any minute now in Romney’s campaign ads.
From a Romney campaign perspective, the best aspect of this ABC interview is when President Obama “refused to accept the argument” that a mandate to buy health insurance is equivalent to a tax.
President Obama may have “refused to accept the argument” then, but now that Chief Justice Roberts has had the last word, Roberts just wrote Mitt Romney a new campaign bumper sticker:
Obama Lied – The Health Care Mandate Is A Tax.
Now, we all know that ObamaCare is unpopular. Just how unpopular? According to the latest Rasmussen poll, 54% of likely voters favored its repeal vs. 38% who opposed. For Governor Romney the good news of this poll concerns all the money, time and energy President Obama must spend between now and Election Day defending and selling his signature program.
As a result of today’s ruling, Republicans and many Independents have been energized into a frenzy. So then is Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod quoting Japanese Admiral Yamamoto who, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor famously said, “I am afraid we have awakened a sleeping giant” as the Japanese high command was celebrating the surprise attack? If not, he should be, for this Supreme Court decision is filled with many positive unintended consequences for Romney.
Besides an energized opposition, another positive unintended consequence is all the money pouring into the Romney campaign. Furthermore, Governor Romney now has an issue that will completely define his presidential campaign which at times seems like it is in need of a little more defining.
The ruling today will also have an adverse effect on the economy at large. Besides the stock market’s negative reaction, small and large business owners from coast to coast will continue to avoid hiring additional employees because of ObamaCare and its unknown costs. ObamaCare many argue, hurts job creation and Romney has even more reason now to make this issue his non-stop campaign mantra.
So even though President Obama may be celebrating a victory at the White House his campaign headquarters in Chicago surely knows this Supreme Court decision is a minefield that must be carefully cleared.
Remember, no president in his right mind wants his signature program to be associated with, or to be an excuse for, a new tax. But that is where Team Obama is today.
The Obama campaign might be wise to recall the 1984 Walter Mondale acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention when Mondale said:
“Let’s tell the truth. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won’t tell you. I just did”.
Mondale badly lost the 1984 election against Ronald Reagan and historians point to that statement as a chief reason. In fact, that statement is the one with which former Vice-President Walter Mondale is most closely associated.
Similar to Mondale, President Obama in order to be reelected must defend a tax increase, indeed, one that the Supreme Court has now defined as a tax increase — doubly onerous because it funds a program that has grown increasingly unpopular since its inception.
Which means for both Obama and Romney, today is the beginning of the rest of the campaign.
Nicely and optimistically put, Miss Adams, but with a tiny nitpick:
“Harken” is an energy corporation.
“Hearken” is the archaism that means “Open your ears and listen hard, hero.”
(Yes, yes, Webster’s 1913 edition says “harken” is an acceptable alternate spelling, but once you start accepting these blatant corruptions, you can’t know where it will end!)
As Ever,
Francis W. Porretto
Curmudgeon Emeritus to the World Wide Web.
Funny you should mention this because I Googled the word to make sure I was spelling it correctly and it actually said that either spelling is acceptable.
Thanks for taking the time to police the web for spelling and grammar. You should be VERY BUSY.
Well, in point of fact, I am rather busy. But I’ll always make time to deliver a gentle dig in the ribs to a congenial fellow writer. I consider it a public duty. After all, what else is a Curmudgeon Emeritus (or any other breed of Web nuisance) for?
Wait…you’re not saying that you’re not a congenial sort, are you? The kind of writer who can’t detect the chuckle behind a trivial comment? I profoundly hope not. That would be very sad. It leads to bunions, split ends, and three different kinds of chapped lips. Why, you might never again be able to wear high heels, pronounce anfractuosity, or enjoy strawberries zabaglione!
In short, it’s always best to stay on the lighter side. Especially given the number of things that can drag us down. Laughter isn’t always the “best” medicine; sometimes it’s the only medicine.
This is a classic display of Chicago-style thuggery in action.
Chief Justice Roberts was targeted by the New Left and several of its lead organizations .
Among New Left’s constellation of abetting and willing accomplices were its fellow traveling minions in every corner of social media, OWS’ers, Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, and deep pocketed WALL STREETERS (see, this last group bet on certain stocks appreciating in value and with Justice Roberts decision, they did).
The New left and their minions organized a campaign along with Congressional Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and its constellation of willing accomplices to target Justice Roberts in: 1) Public Opinion,2) Halls of academia (articles in his alma mater’s paper), 3) local newspapers in his town, 4) letter writing campaign to his address, 5) individuals “hanging around” family members, 6) spreading innuendos in and around his residence, 6) local TV ad campaigns, 7) email threats, and 8) Obama’s administration.
For fear of what this may result in for both his personal safety and family members, Justice Roberts finessed this onslaught of threats, innuendoes and out-and-out boorishness by agreeing to ACA, but with a Taxing purview…dropping ACA back in Congress’s lap.
New Left crowed it had won, Obama cheered his victory, and Nancy Pelosi was vindicated.
But the party is over. This because Congress now has full authority to decide ACA’s fate.
In order for this to happen, per Justice Robert’s own words, citizens and their elected Representatives will have to sort it out. This means, of 2008′s total voter turn out numbers, an additional 8 to 10 million must be added to the “White” catagory. This will be necessary because the “Black, Hispanic, and Asian” catagories are rising by double (and in some cases, triple digit voter turnout numbers), estimated to increase over 2008 by some 6 or 7 million voter turnout numbers in 2012.
Constitutional Conservatives must, must energize their neighbors, friends, church leaders and flock alike, towns, and states to vote for Senate and Congressional candidates willing to fight for America and its future. Don’t let happen in their precincts what happened in Utah with Orrin Hatch (he won because Tea Partiers didn’t think the election mattered).
If this isn’t done. New Left and its fellow travelers will not only re-elect a Chicago Thug and his accomplices, but populate the Supreme Court with like minded Judges, as well as every judicial, legislative branch in America with their fellow travelers. Arise America. Justice Roberts handed We The People the torch, it is ours to do him justice. God Bless America. Amen.
The True American Citizen will mark The Beginning…Not The Obama Marxist Administration..We The People Will Overcome….Our Constitution will Stand, So Help Us God.We Will Fight To The Death.
Now, now, like the president said, now is not the time to open old wounds and rehash those health care disagreements. Forward.