Republicans declare war on the law.

The Supreme Court voted to uphold Obamacare—individual mandate and all—this morning, but that's hardly the last we’ll hear of the president’s health-care law. Though even conservative Chief Justice John Roberts declared the legislation constitutional, immediate Republican reactions to the decision suggest repealing Obamacare will continue to be one of Mitt Romney’s key campaign platforms. “Just elect Romney. We need [full repeal],” RNC chair Reince Priebus reportedly tweeted. The conservative Club for Growth issued an immediate statement calling the decision “unfortunate” and declaring Obamacare “a debacle and an unwarranted intrustion of the federal government into the marketplace.” And, naturally, an outraged Sarah Palin had to weigh in. She took to Twitter waxing positively poetic with “Obama lied to the American people. Again. He said it wasn’t a tax. Obama lies; freedom dies.”

Read it at Talking Points Memo

New ad says Romney profited off other companies' debt.

Why change a good thing, right? That seems to be the thinking behind pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action's ad campaign. One might have thought attacking Mitt Romney for his record at Bain Capital would have gotten old by now, but these guys are still running with it. "Romney bought companies, drowned them in debt. Many went bankrupt. Thousands of workers lost jobs, benefits and pensions," says the narrator of "Briefcase," the group's latest ad. "But for every company Romney drove into the ground, Romney averaged a $92 million profit. Now, he says his business experience would make him a good president? If Romney wins, the middle class loses."

Read it at Politico

The ‘Nuns on the Bus’ stop in Ohio in their national road trip, protesting the Ryan budget and proposals that would hurt the poor.

You’d never know it, but the four placid ladies sitting at the window table in Grumpy’s Café, eating french toast and Cajun home fries, have their hair on fire. That’s why they’ve traveled an hour from Sandusky, Ohio, to this popular eatery in the gentrifying inner-ring Cleveland neighborhood of Tremont.

“We’re here this morning to see the ‘Nuns on the Bus,’” explains Anne Lamb. Between the Ryan budget and what the Vatican is doing to these sisters (criticizing them for emphasizing social needs over abortion and homosexuality issues), Lamb declares, “They need all the support we can give.”

“Nuns on the Bus” may sound like a wacky new Betty White sitcom featuring a feisty group of sisters who won’t be put in the corner by their church. And except for the comedy film part, that’s a pretty good description. This rolling event features a group of Roman Catholic nuns on a nine-state, 15-day tour, focused on protesting the budget bill spearheaded by Representative Paul Ryan (R–WI) and backed by presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The trip is sponsored by Network, a national Catholic justice lobby; Network is affiliated with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the main umbrella group of U.S. nuns.

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Virginia may be a toss-up state, but the GOP standard bearer was greeted as a hero in Loudon County, where his attack on Obamacare and promise to balance the federal budget drew huge cheers.

“Are you here to see the next president of the United States?” asked a college kid in a royal blue Romney T-shirt, leaning into the car window from the middle of the road and directing a line of late arrivals to a far-off parking lot.

Maybe. Just maybe.

Hundreds of voters—the great majority of them white, and a good many of them white-haired—were baking and reddening on the boiling asphalt Tuesday afternoon outside the headquarters of EIT LLC, a medical electronics instrument manufacturer in Sterling, Va., waiting for the Secret Service to process them through the magnetometers so they could cheer for the Republican nominee-designate.

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A key part of every presidential election.

Is it time for the Family Circle  presidential cookie bake-off already? The women's magazine has been the First Lady's signature cookie recipes against that of her husband's challenger's wife since 1992. This year, Ann Romney's M&M cookies will go up against Michelle Obama's Mama Kaye's White and Dark Chocolate Chip. Family Circle readers can test out the recipes and vote for their favorites on the magazine's Facebook page through August 15th. The bake-off isn't exactly a predictor for the presidential election--though having a good baker in a White House is usually a priority for voters. For example, Cindy McCain won in 2008 with her Oatmeal Butterscotch.

Read it at USA Today

Insists health care is a state issue.

Before a crowd of enthusiastic supporters in Virginia on Wednesday, Mitt Romney declared that if the Supreme Court does not overturn President Obama’s federal health-care plan he'll do so himself. That's if he's elected president, of course. He also promised that if the law is struck down, “The first three and a half years of this presidency will have been wasted.” The Republican presidential candidate explained that if Obamacare is upheld, the United States will need him to appeal the law, and he would do so from day one. “I’m going to get rid of the cloud of Obamacare and get us back to personal responsibilities and state’s rights as it relates to health care,” he said. 

Read it at Los Angeles Times

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Not cool with Washington Post story on Bain record.

The Romney campaign is taking its complaints directly to The Washington Post’s door. Romney officials are reportedly meeting with the paper Wednesday to ask it to retract a story on Romney’s outsourcing record as the head of Bain Capital. According to Politico, the campaign is up in arms about the Post’s June 21 report, which depicted Bain as “helping outsourcing companies,” that “were emerging as handmaidens” to a mass “outflow of employment.” The campaign is prepared to defend each of the specified firms that the private-equity firm represented at the time. “The Post’s editors take all complaints seriously and are always willing to listen to concerns and look into them,” Post spokesperson Kris Coratti said. In the past, Romney officials have said that the assertions confuse “outsourcing” with “offshoring.”

Read it at POLITICO

Romney camp not so sure about that.

Once again Donald Trump and Mitt Romney are not on the same page. The real-estate mogul and self-appointed Romney campaign surrogate announced that he’ll be hosting a fundraiser for the presidential hopeful at New York’s Pierre Hotel this week—and charging $50,000 a head. Maybe Donald’s people never called Mitt’s people before he went ahead and started planning this lavish bash, because the Republican’s campaign insinuated Tuesday afternoon that it’s not really sure what Trump’s talking about—he doesn’t exactly factor into their plans for this week. The alleged fundraiser is slated for Thursday, the same day the Supreme Court is supposed to make a decision on the constitutionality of Obamacare. 

Read it at Washington Post

Kenneth Baer confirms he's stepping down.

The White House is losing a senior adviser. Kenneth Baer confirmed Wednesday that he'll no longer serve as associate director of communications and strategic planning in the Office of Management and Budget. Before joining the Obama administration, Baer was one of former vice president Al Gore’s senior speechwriters and a cofounder of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. Baer will take a vacation with his family before returning to the private sector—though he hasn’t mentioned exactly where he’ll be working. 

Read it at CNN Political Ticker

Leading up to SCOTUS decision.

A Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act—better known as Obamacare—is on its way! And as Americans anticipate the fate of their health care, it seems none are especially pleased with the president’s plan or what we have in place right now. A new poll by ABC News and The Washington Post released Wednesday shows that only 36 percent of Americans actually like Obama’s plans for American health care, while a comparable 39 percent want to keep our health care system as it is. The strange thing, though, is that Americans in general are just unhappy with the overall health-care system—yet 75 percent of them are pleased with their own quality of care. 

Read it at ABC News

The plausible candidates for the second spot on Romney’s ticket all have baggage of one kind or another—except Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio, the Democrats’ worst nightmare, writes Michael Medved.

The ideal running mate for Mitt Romney would make three simultaneous contributions to the Republican ticket:

1. Reassuring the general public that he (or she) is competent, scandal free, and ready to assume the daunting responsibilities of the presidency;

2. Inspiring the conservative base and provoking the sort of ecstatic enthusiasm that the presidential nominee might not generate on his own;

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Mitt’s tepid response to the Supreme Court’s Arizona ruling is a stark reminder of one of his most damning political weaknesses. Andrew Romano on how Romney went off track.

On New York's primary day.

Harlem's long-standing U.S. Representative Charlie Rangel is up against a slew of bright young things eager to take over his seat. A founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rangel's reputation was tainted a bit when he failed to pay some of his income taxe. 'Twas a scandal, for sure, yet most politicians still expect Rangel to be re-elected. “There’s a job to be done,” Rangel asserted in a CNN interview, “I was there at the beginning to start it…I want to make sure I’m there to finish this job”. 

Read it at Reuters

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Seriously, though.

Condoleezza Rice may be fundraising up a storm for the Romney campaign, but that doesn’t mean she wants to be his VP—though it might behoove Mitt to choose a qualified woman as his running mate. “I didn’t run for student council president. I don’t see myself in any way in elected office,” the former secretary of state said Tuesday on CBS This Morning. “I love policy. I’m not particularly fond of politics.” And unlike some people who say they’re not interested but hint otherwise, Condi means it. “I’m saying there’s no way that I will do this, because it’s really not me. I know my strengths, and Governor Romney needs to find someone who wants to run with him.”

Read it at CNN Political Ticker

Obama camp goes dark on this one.

The Obama campaign is out with a new ad, targeting Mitt Romney’s penchant for financing outsourcing firms while at Bain Capital, and, frankly, it’s got a little more ominous music and gloomy narration than expected from the president’s reelection team, but, hey, so goes the election these days. “The Washington Post has just revealed that Romney’s companies were pioneers in shipping U.S. jobs overseas, investing in firms that specialize in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India,” warns the narrator in the ad, targeted specifically at either Iowa, Ohio, or Virginia, the states that will see it this week. “Does [fill in the state here] really want an outsourcer in chief in the White House?”

Read it at Talking Points Memo

With the Supreme Court’s Arizona ruling and Obama’s decision not to deport Dreamers putting a spotlight on immigration, Romney has to outline his solution on the issue if he wants to win more Latino support.

The Supreme Court’s pending health-care ruling matters, but it’s immigration that could translate into ‘Adios, Mitt.’ And a position he has taken this June could well prove his undoing in November.

Hosting a D.C. bash for the conservative group.

With hardly any time to recover from this weekend’s wild-West Romney retreat, Condoleezza Rice is hosting her first D.C. fundraiser, on Monday night. The former secretary of state and ShePAC, the female-focused Republican super PAC, are joining forces. All 29 Republican ladies currently serving in Congress have been invited to tonight’s shindig, but those who’ve actually RSVP’d include Nebraska’s Deb Fischer, New Mexico’s Heather Wilson and Sarah Steelman of Missouri, as well as female congressional candidates like Utah’s Mia Love. 

Read it at CNN Political Ticker

Is he for it or against it? We can’t tell!

Mitt Romney has relatively little of substance to say about the Supreme Court’s ruling on Arizona’s controversial immigration law. The Republican presidential hopeful said that the high court’s decision to strike down key portions of the law was a sign that the U.S. is in need of someone who can “lead” on immigration, but offered little else in the way of a specific stance on the ruling. “President Obama has failed to provide any leadership on immigration. This represents yet another broken promise by this president,” Romney said in a statement. “I believe that each state has the duty—and the right—to secure our borders and preserve the rule of law, particularly when the federal government has failed to meet its responsibilities.”

Read it at Talking Points Memo

Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images

Still holding out for President Santorum?

@rupertmurdoch is at it again. The News Corp. CEO has taken to Twitter, his new favorite media platform, to weigh in on the presidential election. Back in January he declared that Rick Santorum was the “only candidate with genuine big vision” for the United States. Santorum has long since left the race, but Murdoch has yet to be won over by his fellow conservative gazillionaire Mitt Romney. Murdoch dissed the presumptive Republican nominee Sunday afternoon, tweeting, “When is Romney going to look like a challenger? Seems to play everything safe, make no news except burn off Hispanics.” And, “easy for Romney to spell out restoration of the American dream and bash incompetent administration. But not a word!”

Read it at Rupert Murdoch’s Twitter