It must be galling to the liberals at the New York Times that their own poll shows 68% of Americans want the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare.  70% of Independents want it struck down.

Of the 68% that want The Supreme Court to rule against Obamacare,  27%  want the health insurance “mandate” struck down while the block of 41% want the entire law thrown out.  48% of Democrats want Obamacare to be overturned.  Only 24% (of all Americans) want the Court to uphold Obamacare.  That 24% constitutes the Obama base of core liberal lefties (I wanted to say moonbats).

So much for Obama’s claim that the Supreme Court will suffer a precipitous drop in its standing with the public if it strikes down Obamacare.  It appears more likely the Court’s public standing will suffer if it refuses to strike down Obamacare.  I doubt the Justices care a whit about any of that, though.

Romney was the choice of conservatives although he will get their vote because the alternative is a nightmare.   An example of that irks conservatives about Romney is former Utah governor Mike Leavitt, a key advisor to Romney and close personal friend.  Leavitt is one of the many Republican political operatives who don’t want all of Obamacare to be either repealed or tossed out by the Supreme Court.  These Republicans claim to have found certain provisions in Obamacare that they believe are good policy and should be preserved.   Leavitt likes the provision for state insurance exchanges and wants to save that part of Obamacare.

As always, knowing someone’s likely motive is key to understanding what they say.  Leavitt has started a company that specializes in helping states set up the Obamacare insurance exchanges and he’s made a ton of money at it.  His company just landed a Million dollar contract with the State of New Mexico.  He expects to make a few more tons of money off the state insurance exchange provision in Obamacare, so he’d sure to see that part go into the trash heap.  Stories about this are here and here.

It gets worse.  There are rumors that Romney is so close to Leavitt (a fellow Mormon and the man who put Romney in charge of the troubled Olympic committee in 2002) that Leavitt may be under consideration to become Romney’s running mate.  It’s easy to believe that Romney is a little bit of a bonehead when it come to political savvy; it’s harder (but not impossible) to believe he could be so boneheaded as to choose a veep likely to attract just the sort of political distractions and side shows that will make it difficult for the Romney campaign to get out its message of rebuilding the economy.  The Obama team will know they’ve landed in tall clover if Romney picks Leavitt.

Romney shares at least one trait with George W. Bush and that is loyalty to old friends, sometimes so much so when that it leads to stupid political mistakes.  Loyalty is a virtue but so is clear-headed thinking.  Machiavelli would counsel to always be aware of political reality and to know that it will triumph over wishful thinking every time.

Mike Leavitt is wrong, even aside from his personal conflict of interest.  If any part of Obamacare can be said to be wise policy (of which I seriously doubt) it still should be throw out in its entirety for the simple reason that it was enacted by legislative gimmicks and trickery that shoved it down the throats of the American people without any serious debate.  If there is anything good in this monstrous and abominable legislation known as Obamacare let it be reintroduced after repeal as a new proposal and given a proper airing in open debate.  Then let it succeed or fail according to our established democratic processes to which all legislation is supposed to be subjected.