NEW YORK — A day after the Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s health care law, Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney said the landmark ruling has increased the importance of the presidential contest.
‘‘What happened yesterday calls for greater urgency, I believe, in the election,’’ the presumptive GOP presidential nominee told donors Friday. ‘‘I think people recognize that if you want to replace Obamacare you’ve got to replace President Obama. And the urgency of doing that is something which is galvanizing people across the country.’’
He suggested the ruling was somewhat surprising.
‘‘I think many people assumed that the Supreme Court would do the work that was necessary in repealing Obamacare,’’ Romney said, adding that the justices ‘‘did not get that job done.’’
The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of most of Obama’s health care law.
For much of the past year, Romney has promised to repeal the measure if elected, despite his record in Massachusetts.
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Roberts finds ‘impregnable island fortress’ after vote
FARMINGTON, Pa. — Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts joked that he'll spend some time on an ‘‘impregnable island fortress’’ now that the court has ended a session that featured him casting the decisive vote to uphold President Obama’s health care law.
Responding to a question about his summer break, Roberts said he planned to teach a class for two weeks in Malta, the Mediterranean island nation.
‘‘Malta, as you know, is an impregnable island fortress. It seemed like a good idea,’’ Roberts said, drawing laughter from about 300 judges, attorneys, and others at a four-day conference at a posh southwestern Pennsylvania resort.
Roberts responded with the Malta quip after Chief Judge David B. Sentelle of the D.C. Circuit Court asked him whether he was ‘‘going to Disney World’’ now that the court has adjourned for the summer.
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Romney ad taps remarks of Hillary Clinton in 2008
NEW YORK — Mitt Romney’s campaign has launched a new attack ad against President Obama that uses Hillary Rodham Clinton’s words against the president.
The Romney ad is running in Ohio and several other battleground states. It is a response to a commercial run by the Obama campaign suggesting that the Republican presidential hopeful’s longtime private equity firm has sent jobs overseas
The Romney ad calls the charges false and says Obama used unfounded attacks on Clinton when the two sought the Democratic nomination in 2008.
The ad includes a clip of Clinton saying ‘‘Shame on you, Barack Obama,’’ after direct mail pieces his campaign sent in Ohio suggested that she backed the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Clinton now serves as Obama’s secretary of state.
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Actor’s Obama fund-raiser targets Americans overseas
WASHINGTON — Actor George Clooney is offering more help to President Obama’s reelection campaign by headlining a European fund-raiser this summer for Americans living abroad.
An invitation on Obama’s campaign website says that Clooney will be the special guest at an Obama fund-raiser Aug. 27 in Geneva.
Tickets start at $1,000 per person, and dinner for two costs $30,000.
Clooney held a gala fund-raiser at his Los Angeles home in May that raised nearly $15 million.
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