Rick Santorum Is Not The Ideal Candidate To Go One On One With Obama On ObamaCare

With the United States Supreme Court hearing arguments on the constitutionality of ObamaCare, Rick Santorum used this historic moment to launch another attack on RomneyCare:

Santorum then drew some unwanted headlines this past weekend and Monday after he said that Romney is the "worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama." He claimed he was only talking about the health care issue. He later cursed at a New York Times reporter who asked about the charge.

Undeterred, Santorum pounded the issue again on the Supreme Court steps Monday afternoon: "If we run this campaign, which we will, on Obamacare and we're successful, there's no doubt Obamacare will be repealed in one form or another, and that's not going to be the case with Governor Romney because he can't make it the argument, because if he makes it the argument, the Obama machine will turn it right back on him."

Rick Santorum's claim that Mitt Romney is a bad candidate to go one on one with Obama on the issue of ObamaCare is odd given that Santorum was one of the many conservatives who have supported RomneyCare in the past. Moreover, Rick Santorum supported an employer mandate in which his plan would mandate that employers be required to offer their workers a chance to purchase health insurance. If Rick Santorum decides to go after Obama on ObamaCare, the President will have no trouble returning fire during the general election.

Rick Santorum's claims that Mitt Romney can't make the case for overturning ObamaCare because Obama will turn it right back on him is also bizzare. Mitt Romney has repeatedly promised that he will repeal ObamaCare on the first day in office as President. Recently, on March 22,  Mitt released an article reaffirming his promise to repeal ObamaCare and outlining additional steps he would take to reform America's health care system. Mitt Romney has already made the argument that he will repeal ObamaCare and Obama can't attack Romney on that point without getting dragged into a debate on the Constitutionality of his health care plan which is something that Obama himself may not want to do since a large majority of Americans do not support ObamaCare.

In fact, if there was any candidate who is ideal for going against Obama on the issue of ObamaCare, its Mitt Romney:

"The central tenet of the “Anybody-But-Romney” conservative theology is this article of faith: Nominating the former Massachusetts governor will take away the Republican Party’s best 2012 issue — because “Romneycare” is so like “Obamacare.” ABR true believers lump the two plans together, with the epithet “Obamneycare.”

This conservative faith is wrong, however. To the extent that attacks on President Barack Obama’s health care reform are good politics, the candidate best able to make them is Mitt Romney.

Since he orchestrated and then signed the Massachusetts health care law, Romney is uniquely qualified to lead the GOP attacks against the federal health care reform bill.

Why? He would be the first GOP nominee in nearly 50 years with a proven track record on health care who has been praised by Democrats — including the president — as fair and compassionate. He can’t be demonized as an out-of-touch, uncompassionate, hard-right ideologue on this issue.

Americans have been telling pollsters since 1965 that they favor Democrats over Republicans when asked whom they trust on health care issues. That was when President Lyndon B. Johnson and congressional Democrats passed the historic Medicare program — over the objections of many high-profile Republican opponents, including future President Ronald Reagan.

This political landscape meant GOP presidential nominees have regularly been put on the defensive, sometimes even demonized, on health care issues. Rick Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are typical in this regard."

"...Think of the advantage that this situation gives Romney: Even if the health care law is ruled constitutional, legitimate political questions remain because it is not fully operative for two more years. Only “Romneycare” is a public-private-sector plan in full operation, praised by his opponents — like Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a top Obama ally. By embracing a role for government in addressing health care, Romney has neutralized traditional winning Democratic arguments.

The Obama campaign has one overriding aim — paint any GOP nominee as out of touch with the problems facing average Americans. “Romneycare” presents a problem for this narrative. If the former head of Bain Capital is allegedly the “same ole” GOP rich guy worshipping at the altar of social Darwinism, how does the “compassionate party” explain away using “Romneycare” as a model?"

There is one fundamental difference between RomneyCare and ObamaCare that people on the left and on the right somehow fail to grasp. Its a difference that Mitt Romney has been making for many months now and its a distinction that the attorneys opposing ObamaCare in the Supreme Court explained today:

If the Supreme Court overturns the individual mandate based on the theory argued by Paul Clement, the attorney representing the 26 states that filed lawsuits against Obamacare, Mitt Romney's presidential campaign could get a big boost from the ruling.

Clement told the court, just as Romney has told Republican primary voters, that states have the power to enact individual mandates wheras the federal government has no such authority.

"I do think the States could pass this mandate," Clement said today in response to a question from Justice Sonia Sotomayor. "[T]he States can do it because they have a police power, and that is a fundamental difference between the States on the one hand and the limited, enumerated Federal Government on the other."

Romney has argued throughout the presidential primary that Massachusetts has the ability, under the 10th Amendment, to enact an individual mandate for health insurance.

Democrats prepping for the general election have attacked Romney for supporting the individual mandate in his state while opposing President Obama's mandate.

If the Supreme Court agrees that states can enact mandates, but rules that Obama's mandate is an unconstitutional infringement on individual liberty, then Romney will have a solid rebuttal.

ObamaCare will certainly be an issue during the 2012 general election since the Supreme Court won't publicly release their decision until June which is a few months before election day. Romney's defense of RomneyCare is a solidly constitutional argument and whereas Obama's defense of ObamaCare isn't. The contrast between state's rights and governmental overreach will be made very clear if Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee.  As a result, Mitt Romney is the best and strongest defender of state's rights and economic liberty and is the ideal candidate to go head to head with Obama.