I’m actually encouraged by this.
I am 100% sure that Elena Kagan leaked the results of the vote to Barry as soon as it was over.
This reaction sounds like a bit of a freakout, indicating that he has lost and lost big.
I had the same reaction.
You could tell he was pissed off.
And why is not one single reporter shoving it in his face that he campaigned against the mandate in 2008?
“This reaction sounds like a bit of a freakout, indicating that he has lost and lost big.”
As someone pointed out upthread, he could have won bigtime and is NOW talking tough, so when the decision is announced, people will see it was Barry who straightened the court out.
Politicians frequently come down on the side of inevitability, and if they can be seen as part of that inevitability, they gain in perceived power.
Like Romney endorsing a state candidate after they win the primary.
I wouldn’t say I am encouraged, but I am definitely a bit surprised. You’d think that Barry’s handlers would have warned him about his low ratings with the Supreme Court right now.
After ragging on them during the State of the Union Address to the cheers and jeers of Congress — something that was universally agreed to be bad tactics — issuing them a “warning” is going to stick in their collective throats like a sideways chicken bone.
When the dust settles from this, he might have Sotomayor and Kagan, but he runs a strong risk of losing Ginsberg who is at an age where she probably is somewhat intolerant of under-educated whippersnappers telling her what to do.
If any of the Liberal Justices vote against it, he’s cooked. The best he can hope for at this stage is a five/four ideological split.