After the Court Ruling: Obamacare and the Campaign

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http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2012/03/the-obamacare-ruling-and-the-campaign.html

Now that the three days of Supreme Court hearings about Obamacare are over, let’s get down to the issue consuming political junkies: how will the Court’s decision, which is expected to be handed down sometime in June, affect the Presidential race?

The conventional wisdom is that, whatever happens, the G.O.P. stands to benefit. If the Justices throw out the individual mandate or strike down the entire law, it will be a humiliating setback for the President. If the Court upholds the law’s constitutionality, the Republicans will have a rallying cry for the fall: repeal Obamacare. I am not so sure about this logic. A decision to strike down the reforms could easily rebound in the President’s favor, neutralizing an unpopular issue and helping him rally his base. If the Justices rule in favor of the Administration, health-care reform will still be a big debating point come this fall. But with the author of Massachusetts Mittcare at the top of the Republican ticket, aggressively pushing for the repeal of Obamacare wouldn’t be without dangers for the G.O.P.

The Affordable Care Act is currently unpopular, and, on the face of things, anything that reminds voters of its existence is bad news for the White House. Politico’s Alexander Burns reported this morning: “Republican strategists and party officials have begun crafting a strategy that puts health care front-and-center in the campaign against President Barack Obama, even if Mitt Romney is at the top of their ticket.” The G.O.P.’s determination to seize on Obamacare is hardly surprising. A New York Times/CBS News poll released earlier this week showed that the majority of Americans (fifty-four per cent) disapprove of the health-care act, and more than two in three of them (sixty-seven per cent) think that the Supreme Court should throw out all or part of it. And this is despite the fact that some of the law’s individual provisions, such as forcing insurance companies to cover people with preëxisting conditions and enabling young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance plans, are highly popular.

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[TheMastersNemesis]

1. We Live In An Idiocracy.

[southernyankeebelle]

2. I think it will be a winning issue for democrats. I mean when you look at it they have already

helped get over 30,000,000 people that didn't have coverage into the system. That ain't chicken feed. I blame the administration in the beginning for not going into the changes correctly. They let the republicans take the position and democrats afraid of their own shaddow didn't stand up to it. I hope they get the backbone this time.

[tibbiit]

3. It would be a winning issue

If they learn to explain it where people understand it. Their explanation and sale to the people of all of the things they have done during this administration is abysmal. I am so upset that they didn't see the need to communicate how good a job they have done from the start! (or they had the absolute worst explainers doing the talking. The pukes run circles around us with their words and lies and our people with the power to do the talking and running... sit on their thumbs (it appears to me). After 8 years of clinton getting slammed... why didnt they learn they have to be out front to create reality our way instead of bush's? I am so angry about all of this.
tib

[southernyankeebelle]

4. You are absolute right.