Fox News Chris Stirewalt, politics editor for digital Fox News, is presumably part of Fox' "objective" team. But when he appeared on America Live, at about 2:00 PM today (as part of Fox's "objective news" lineup), he nearly twisted himself into a pretzel as he argued – with a straight face – that the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of President Obama’s health care reform was really a big plus for Mitt Romney. "I’m sure, from a cynical political perspective, they’d much rather would have had this issue go away and the Supreme Court take it down so the president could go rally the troops. Instead, it’s Romney’s troops who are rallied,” Stirewalt said. The spin was so furious, I don’t know how he and host Megyn Kelly didn’t fall over from dizziness. I know I nearly did.
Referencing DNC’s Patrick Gaspard’s tweet in response to the SCOTUS decision, “Its Constutitional, Bitches,” Kelly said it might be “a little premature in his celebration on the political front.”
Stirewalt very cagily said, “If in fact Mitt Romney does go on to win the presidency,” we will look back on “this decision this morning as what made it possible.” He continued by saying, “If Romney prevails,” the ruling would be “one of the most substantial means by which he does it.” You’ll notice neither he nor Kelly said that a Romney win was any more likely as a result of the decision although you could be forgiven for thinking they had.
Kelly went on to note that the majority of Americans “still don’t want this law.” She added significantly, “And now they’ve been told they have to live with it, by the Supreme Court, unless they do something politically.”
Stirewalt said, “Guess what? The Supreme Court just did (Romney’s) job for him” in getting conservatives on board with the Romney campaign. “Every conservative, because this is the most important issue to them in so many ways, is going to go march for him.” He predicted that Romney can now “count on” the same enthusiasm that swept so many Republicans into power in 2010 will now help get Romney elected. “They’ll be with him all the way,” Stirewalt said, without citing a single poll.
Kelly, in a feint toward balance, asked how Obama will “manage the anger that a lot of people still have about the government intruding in their relationship with their doctors?”
Instead of answering the question, Stirewalt added more pro-Romney spin. “Try this one on for size. It’s been held in abeyance for these 282 days since the president signed the law.” He predicted that the Supreme Court had “flipped the switch,” and that people may “really, really come to dislike this law in specific as opposed to the abstract.”
“I can sum it up this way,” Stirewalt said. “At the White House, it’s a good day. The president’s probably very happy that he was vindicated by the Supreme Court. But out in Chicago, at the president’s campaign headquarters, this cannot have been the happiest news. I’m sure, from a cynical political perspective, they’d much rather would have had this issue go away and the Supreme Court take it down so the president could go rally the troops. Instead, it’s Romney’s troops who are rallied.”
Paging Jan Brewer!
If so, I can’t wait for the debates.
I’d love to hear how Mittch-A-Sketch plans on repealing the same legislation he signed into law as Massachusetts governor . . .
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Honestly, no surprises here.