Double On Kazoo

If Only
One adviser said if the White House had realized the economic troubles would be as sustained as they have been, health care might never have been on the table. Others disagree, arguing that health care did not detract from efforts to promote recovery. (NYT, 6/29/2012)


And the proof, of course, is that Obama was able to pass health care AND turn around the economy. Just kidding!


Leg Up
Republicans say that the court called the mandate a tax although Obama had insisted that it wasn’t. True, but I’m not sure that has legs outside the Grover Norquist-no-tax echo chamber. (Charles M. Blow, NYT, 6/29/2012)


John Boehner warned Republicans not to "spike the football" anticipating that the Supreme Court would strike down Obamacare. Of course, that did not happpen. Democrats, playing by different rules, have no problem celebrating and taunting Republicans as Blow does here. Their celebrations may be short-lived with the November election looming. Given Obama's poll numbers Democrats should be a lot more worried than they appear to be at the moment. 


Meanwhile Blow gives us this gem: no one really cares that Obama said the mandate wasn't a tax and the Court said that it was. Here's a prediction: the average American will see over 1,000 television ads between now and November that show footage of President Obama insisting that the mandate is not a tax. We'll see about those "legs."