memeorandum: Romney would support foreign friends, confront adversaries (Guy Taylor/Washington Times)

10:00 AM ET, July 2, 2012

Top Items:

Mitch McConnell: Covering 30 million uninsured is ‘not the issue’ — Mitch McConnell's appearance today on Fox News Sunday was remarkably revealing — it showed as clearly as you could want that the Supreme Court decision is finally forcing Republicans to declare what, exactly …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Pirate's Cove, Balloon Juice, Booman Tribune and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Jan Crawford / CBS News:

Roberts switched views to uphold health care law — (CBS News) Chief Justice John Roberts initially sided with the Supreme Court's four conservative justices to strike down the heart of President Obama's health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, but later changed his position and formed …

Wall Street Journal:

A Vast New Taxing Power — The Chief Justice's ObamaCare ruling is far from the check on Congress of right-left myth. — The commentary on John Roberts's solo walk into the Affordable Care Act wilderness is converging on a common theme: The Chief Justice is a genius.

Discussion: Hit & Run and Althouse

Jan Crawford / CBS News:
Roberts switched views to uphold health care law

Discussion: americanthinker.com, The Volokh Conspiracy, Concurring Opinions, Bookworm Room, Hit & Run, National Review and The PJ Tatler

The Huffington Post:
Mitch McConnell On 30 Million Uninsured: ‘That Is Not The Issue’ (VIDEO)

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Ben Armbruster / ThinkProgress:
McConnell Can't Answer How GOP Will Insure Americans After Repealing ObamaCare: ‘That Is Not The Issue’

Discussion: Feministing, PoliticusUSA, Addicting Info and Guardian

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Half of U.S. Hispanics Identify as Political Independents — But more than half identify as or lean Democratic — PRINCETON, NJ — A majority of U.S. Hispanics identify as political independents (51%) rather than as Democrats (32%) or Republicans (11%). However, once their partisan leanings …

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Patricia Zengerle / Reuters:
Ruling ups support for Obama healthcare, still unpopular

Discussion: The Huffington Post, ABCNEWS, americanthinker.com, Wall Street Journal, The Moderate Voice, The Hill, Mediaite and Michelle Malkin

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
No, Obamacare Isn't the Biggest Tax Increase in History

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Incidental Economist, Talking Points Memo, The Maddow Blog and PERRspectives

Associated Press:

Armando Montano, AP summer intern, dies in Mexico City at age 22 — Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press - In this June 4, 2012 photo, Armando Montano, 22, poses for an ID photo at the Associated Press office in Mexico City. Montano, an aspiring journalist who was working this summer …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Poynter and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Meghashyam Mali / Ballot Box:

Dems target vulnerable GOP lawmakers over health law repeal vote — The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is launching a new campaign Monday targeting vulnerable GOP lawmakers on healthcare ahead of the House vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Discussion: Washington Post and Prairie Weather

Amie Parnes / The Hill: Boehner pushes repeal, wants health law ‘ripped out by its roots’

Reuters:

Mexico's old rulers claim presidential election win — (Reuters) - Mexican opposition candidate Enrique Pena Nieto's campaign team claimed victory in the country's presidential election on Sunday after exit polls showed him winning by a comfortable margin. — Pena Nieto, 45 …

Discussion: americanthinker.com and The Moderate Voice

Randal C. Archibold / New York Times:
In Mexico, Voting Amid a Sense of Nostalgia

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

J. Bradford DeLong / Brad DeLong:

Eric Rauchway: Megan McArdle Says Something Wrong on the Internet — One of the distressing things about the global weblogging community is the way that smart, quirky, and thought-provoking conservatives have lost their smarts, their quirkiness, and their thought-provokingness as they have advanced careerwise.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Europe's Great Illusion — Over the past few months I've read a number of optimistic assessments of the prospects for Europe. Oddly, however, none of these assessments argue that Europe's German-dictated formula of redemption through suffering has any chance of working.

Discussion: ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Daily Kos and Prairie Weather

Lexi Stemple / Fox News:

Gov. Scott: Florida will not implement insurance exchanges or expand Medicare — Florida, the state the led the fight against President Obama's health care law, will not comply with the Supreme Court opinion. — Gov. Rick Scott tells Fox News that he and his Attorney General, Pam Bondi …

Discussion: The Daily Beast and The Rightnewz

Jonathan Martin / Politico:

Vice president hopefuls play the name game — The vice-presidential selection process is not merely the act of each nominee picking a running mate. It's also the political equivalent of the Oscars. — Just as aspiring movie stars covet being among the nominees for cinema's ultimate prize …

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:

Busted: Audio of Obama Lawyer Arguing Obamacare Is a Tax Stuns WH Chief of Staff Jack Lew (Video) — Democrats told us Obamacare was not a tax. — Then they argued in front of the Supreme Court that it was a tax. — Now they want to tell us again that Obamacare is not a tax.

Discussion: Hot Air, iOwnTheWorld.com, Scared Monkeys, Macsmind, The Lonely Conservative and American Power