What does ruling mean for election politics? Dems, GOP seek to energize bases

Supporters of President Obama and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney are using the Supreme Court health law ruling as motivation ahead of November's presidential election.

The Washington Post: Health Care Ruling Motivates Romney Supporters
If conservatives needed any more motivation to unseat President Obama, they got it Thursday from the Supreme Court, which provided fresh political opportunities for Mitt Romney even as it handed the president a legal victory. Chief among those new lines of attack is the court's determination that the law's individual mandate -- the penalty it would impose on people who refuse to buy insurance -- amounts to a tax. Obama had previously insisted it was "absolutely not a tax increase" (Tumulty and Henderson, 6/28).

Bloomberg: Obama's Supreme Court Win May Help Now More Than November
The most important U.S. Supreme Court decision during a president's re-election campaign may not have fundamentally changed the dynamics of the 2012 race. In the hours after the court upheld President Barack Obama's health care law, both he and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, retreated to previously stated positions: Romney vowed to repeal and replace the law, while Obama touted its attributes and warned of the consequences of repeal. They sought to frame the issue in the larger context of what's at stake for voters and underscored the centrality of the economy in the presidential election (Goldman and McCormick, 6/28).

USA Today: Analysis: Victory For Obama Now, But What Of Election?
After the health care law passed in 2010, President Obama and his aides celebrated the passage of his signature achievement with a toast on the Truman Balcony at the White House. When the Supreme Court announced its landmark decision Thursday that upheld most of the law, the response was more muted. That was because the political impact on November's hard-fought election is at least mixed (Madhani, Kucinich and Page, 6/28).

Reuters: Romney To Campaign As Only Hope Against 'Obamacare'
The battle over President Barack Obama's landmark health care law shifted from the Supreme Court to the campaign trail on Thursday, as Republican challenger Mitt Romney asked voters to throw Obama out of office to get rid of the unpopular law. The high court's 5-4 decision to uphold the law was a setback for Romney and his fellow Republicans, who had hoped that Obama's central policy achievement would be struck down as unconstitutional (Sullivan, 6/28).

The Associated Press: Campaign Impact: Obama, Romney Seize On Ruling
Battling fiercely for the White House, President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney implored voters to see the Supreme Court's health care ruling in different ways Thursday, with Obama appealing for people to move on with him and his challenger promising to rip up the law (Feller, 6/28).

Market Watch: Health Ruling Jolts Race For White House
The Supreme Court's decision on Thursday to uphold President Barack Obama's health care law delivered an immediate jolt of energy to the 2012 campaign, laying down fresh battle lines between the incumbent Democrat and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney. For Obama, the 5-4 ruling was vindication of his signature domestic initiative, and a big piece of good news for his reelection effort. It will jazz up his liberal base and give the president something to crow about to donors -- though the president himself was careful not to gloat during a post-decision statement at the White House (Schroeder, 6/28).

In the meantime, the decision has given the GOP a new focus of attack ahead of November's elections -- taxes:

Bloomberg: Republicans Focus Health Law Attack on Taxes After Ruling
Republicans in Congress are recasting President Barack Obama's health care law as a significant tax increase imperiling a fragile economy as they continue efforts to repeal the law after the Supreme Court upheld its core tenets. Moments after the court's 5-4 decision yesterday, Republican lawmakers and allies including the anti-tax Club for Growth shifted from attacking the constitutionality of the law's requirement that Americans purchase health insurance or pay a penalty to emphasizing its tax implications for millions of Americans (Przybyla, 6/29).

The Associated Press: Analysis: GOP Sees Tax Opening In Obama Court Win
For President Barack Obama to turn his Supreme Court victory into a clear-cut political win this fall, he must do something other candidates have failed to do: make voters care that GOP opponent Mitt Romney once embraced the health care policies he now fiercely criticizes. If Obama can't do that, then Romney may find it easy to fire up conservative activists who despise what they label "Obamacare," while also attracting moderate voters who simply dislike it. And the Republican will have a new anti-tax argument, thanks to the high court (Babington, 6/29).

Politico: GOP Sees Down-Ballot Gold In Supreme Court Decision
Over the course of its short life span, the Affordable Care Act has left a trail of political wreckage behind it - and while an exultant White House breathed a sigh of relief in the wake of Thursday's Supreme Court validation, Obama's signature policy achievement still faces a host of questions ahead. First among them: Does the party really want to embrace a measure that proved so costly to Democratic candidates in 2010 and polls so poorly? While the Supreme Court's decision upholding the law provided the president with a major victory, the trickle down political effect isn't quite so obvious. Put another way, for down-ballot Democrats in red or purple states, the politics of health care still aren't so good. 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. 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 (Mahtesian, 6/29).

The Dallas Morning News: Legal Victory On Health Care Helps Obama Campaign, But Republicans See Edge, Too
President Barack Obama bet his first term on health care and won a huge vindication Thursday at the Supreme Court. But legal victory, however stunning, won't ensure political survival for Obama or his signature achievement. Both hang in the balance in November's election, and the impact of Thursday's ruling, with more than four months remaining in the campaign, may be a muddle (Gillman, 6/28).

The New York Times: GOP Vowing To Take Battle Over Health Care Law Into November
Taken aback by the Supreme Court ruling on Thursday that upheld the constitutionality of the law, Mr. Romney and Congressional Republicans pledged to intensify their efforts to repeal it, an argument that will be a crucial element of the party's quest to galvanize conservative activists and win control of the White House and the Senate (Zeleny, 6/28).

Minneapolis Star Tribune: GOP Switches To Court Of Public Opinion
The Supreme Court decision upholding the 2010 health care law provided a huge political boost for President Obama, but it also serves up a fresh new campaign issue for races in Minnesota and across the nation. Ruling that the law's controversial coverage mandate can survive as a tax, rather than as a governmental power over interstate commerce, the high court on Thursday reshaped the debate over the landmark law that extends health insurance to 30 million more Americans (Diaz and Mitchell, 6/28).

Others, including Democrats and tea party activists also look to seize on the ruling to gain a political edge --

The Associated Press: Dems Savor Victory In Health Care Ruling -- For Now
Love or hate President Barack Obama's signature health care law, its survival in the Supreme Court was sweet vindication for the Democrats who took enormous political risks -- and paid with the loss of 64 seats and their House majority -- to pass the law on their watch in 2010 (Kellman, 6/29).

Roll Call: Health Care Ruling Re-Energizes Tea Party
In upholding most of President Barack Obama's health care law, the Supreme Court handed the tea party a new lease on life. While activists spouted made-for-TV rancor through megaphones outside the court Thursday, the behind-the-scenes strategists who helped Republicans take the House in 2010 prepared for a flood of donations they said will fuel even greater gains this November (Lorber, 6/29).

Denver Post: Supreme Court Health Care Ruling Fires Up Tea Party
The U.S. Supreme Court only made the Tea Party more agitated Thursday. When the high court upheld the requirement that everyone purchase health insurance -- a 5-4 decision that surprised almost everyone -- Republicans and GOP strategists vowed to double down in politically gettable states like Colorado to try and turn the tables of power -- not only in the White House, but in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, too (Sherry, 6/28).