Conservative
Type 40
Pretty spot on analysis of Obamacare and it's effect on Obama's re-election prospects.
Waiting on the Supremes - John Fund - National Review Online
Waiting on the Supremes - John Fund - National Review Online
Were all waiting to see if Obamacare will be spared, gutted, or tossed into the ash heap of history by the Supreme Court on Thursday. In a new Purple Strategies survey of former Supreme Court clerks and attorneys who have argued before the Court, 57 percent believe the individual mandate, the heart of the law, will die.
But if Obamacare vanishes or the individual mandate is eliminated, look for Democrats to panic.
Its never good if a presidents central domestic-policy achievement is trashed months before an election, and in this case it could be politically fatal.
In retrospect, its clear that Obamas insistence on ramming through his 2,700-page Rube Goldberg legislative monstrosity in the dead of night seriously damaged the post-partisan brand he ran on in 2008. Obamacare clearly wasnt the hope and change the candidate had promised.
Frank Bruni, a liberal New York Times columnist, spoke for a lot of liberals I know this week when he described Obamas hapless position as a leader: Hes beholden to lawmakers whims, buffeted by global winds, as much a spectator as an agent of the most important developments around him. . . . At times he looks dazed, and flails. To focus his economic message, he gave an unfocused 54-minute speech on the apparent theory that the more sentences in the mix, the greater the odds of a keeper.
If Obamacare is tossed aside in whole or in part by the Supreme Court tomorrow, history will view the bill as one of the most remarkable blunders made by any president both in terms of policy and politics. Even if it is upheld, Obama will have to carry it as an albatross into the fall campaign knowing that the majority of likely voters want it repealed, and they can accomplish that goal in only one way: removing him from office.