Campaign Impact: Obama, Romney Seize on Ruling

But the White House counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, knew otherwise and flashed the president two thumbs up. After she explained the justices’ bottom-line ruling, the president gave her a hug.

Across the White House, where anticipation had been intense, the mood was more relief and satisfaction than roaring celebration.

Obama sought to strike that tone as he spoke from a lectern in the East Room, trying to steer the conversation toward the ways he said the law is helping millions of Americans.

“I know there will be a lot of discussion today about the politics of all this — about who won and who lost,” he said. “That’s how these things tend to be viewed here in Washington. But that discussion completely misses the point.”

Obama barely alluded to Romney.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who had watched news of the ruling from his Washington hotel room, reacted first. He set himself up with a TV backdrop of the Capitol to underscore his political message.

“What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States,” Romney said. “And that is I will act to repeal Obamacare.”

His campaign said Thursday evening that it had raised $2.5 million from 24,000 donors during the day, crediting a response to the court decision. But based on the sheer average of Romney’s fundraising — a rate of more than $2 million a day last month — it was unclear how much of Thursday’s money was attributable to the health care opinion.

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign emailed a fundraising appeal over the president’s name, citing the court’s decision and Romney’s pledge to repeal it. “While the Supreme Court’s decision should put to rest the debate over health care,” the email said, “Mitt Romney and the Republicans in Congress just can’t take yes for an answer.”

For all the political furor over the decision, Romney and Obama ultimately turned their comments to the economy, where they know the election will be decided. Shortly afterRomney insisted the president’s law was a “job-killer,” Obama called for the debate over the health care law to finally end so everyone can “focus on the most urgent challenge of our time: putting people back to work.”