The real fallout from the SOTUS ruling yesterday will be political…at least for now. Many phillipsbillboard.com readers are politically active or more than causal observers of the game. To provide a feel for the current political fallout I have clipped some pieces from POLITICOS morning newsletter.
SNEAK PEEK – RNC DAY 2 MESSAGING PLAN: The Republican National Committee is holding a 9 a.m. call with Governors Bobby Jindal and Bob McDonnell and then a Spanish speaking call at 10 a.m. with Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Quico Canseco. They are also releasing a web video highlighting Obama’s promises that Obamacare wasn’t a tax while SCOTUS upheld it as a tax: http://bit.ly/Nb2l0O. And they are moving this research piece to highlight the continuing unpopularity of Obamarecare: http://bit.ly/MWXDaB. The RNC will also continue the #FullRepeal hashtag.
DOWN-BALLOT DEMOCRATS IN RED AND PURPLE STATES COULD GET SCREWED: “With Thursday’s defeat, Republicans were handed a powerful tool for motivating their base and a fresh ammo clip for use in House and Senate races across the map,” Charlie Mahtesian reports. “It removed one arrow from the Democratic quiver – the prospect of an outraged and highly motivated base – and provided a new one to the GOP by defining the mandate as a tax…The cautious and measured statements from Democratic House and Senate candidates Thursday reflected the unease about renewing a debate that ended badly for the party in November 2010. The general rule, which seemed to apply to candidates in both parties, was the more competitive the race, the more tempered the response. That meant no touchdown dance for many Democratic Senate candidates – even for former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine in Virginia.” http://bit.ly/MZ8xta
OBAMA LOOKS LIKE A WINNER: “The decision also will give the president a fresh opportunity to try to win the political argument over the law, or at least do a better job of trying to sway a skeptical electorate than he and his team have done since the measure was enacted,” Dan Balz writes in the Washington Post. “For Obama, the elation that he and his advisers may have felt Thursday could quickly dissipate if more bad economic news occurs. It is a long time until November, and the economy, domestically and internationally, remains extremely fragile.” http://wapo.st/MWZWdH
WHAT IT MEANS FOR NOVEMBER WON’T BE CLEAR FOR WEEKS: “Over the next six weeks or so, health care will be an unpredictable race within a race,” Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman write. “For Mitt Romney, who had every reason to expect the conservative high court to strike down at least a big part of the law, the decision requires a bit of recalibration. He had hoped to portray a full or partial repeal as evidence Obama squandered the trust of the American electorate by wasting two years…[That] will take a back seat to a more generic GOP assault on the law highlighting the court’s insistence that the individual mandate be legally defined as a tax – an approach more likely to appeal to the conservative base than independent voters…Views about the Affordable Care Act are baked into the political cake already, and most independents undecided about their choice this November are bored, confused, exhausted or all of the above about a law that keeps cropping up like athlete’s foot.” More: http://politi.co/NVCw9Y . My story with Robin Bravender on the tax messaging: http://politi.co/M9pEhl.