Chief Justice John Roberts’s legal two-step cruelly robbed Mitt Romney of the opportunity to portray his rival as a quasi-socialist violator of the Constitution. But the G.O.P. candidate is still in a much stronger position than he was three months ago, when he scraped through the Wisconsin primary and finally brought to an end Rick Santorum’s candidacy.
Both sides have said that the election is going to be close, and there is no reason to doubt it. For now, though, the momentum is running in favor of Obama, who is taking a few days off before embarking a bus tour of Ohio and Pennsylvania. His victory in the high court buoyed the spirits of everyone in Democratic Party, and it wasn’t the only good news that last week brought him. A number of opinion polls taken before the Supreme Court’s decision suggested that his campaign’s Plan B, which was adopted in wake of the economic slowdown earlier this year, is starting to bear fruit.
Plan A was to say that the hard slog of the past four years had been worth it, and that the economy was finally recovering. ...John Cassidy, New Yorker
So what's "Plan B"?
Plan B is based on the assumption that the economy will continue to stutter along without slipping, once again, into an outright slump, which would probably insure a Romney victory. The basic idea is to try to neutralize the economic headwinds by changing the subject as often as possible, and by raising doubts about Romney’s record, both at Bain Capital and as the governor of Massachusetts. “We’ve got to make sure people fully appreciate Mitt Romney is not some safe alternative...” ...John Cassidy, New Yorker
Plan B is risky. But so far it's working.
A survey by Quinnipiac University of voters in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania showed Obama ahead in all three states—by four points, nine points, and six points, respectively. If Obama wins all three states in November, he will be virtually assured of victory. Even if he wins two out of three, he will be very well placed. ...John Cassidy, New Yorker
