For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over oral arguments, it seems Solicitor General Donald Verrilli's legal strategy won the day yesterday. This article sums things up well.
Like some cable-news viewers, President Obama was at first confused on Thursday about the Supreme Court ruling on his health care law. He saw the erroneous CNN report that the individual mandate had been overturned and thought, momentarily, that the Court had nullified his signature legislative accomplishment.
Standing in the corridor outside the Oval Office, Obama kept watching and waiting – perhaps hoping for a better outcome, perhaps seeking more information. White House officials were a bit opaque on this.
No matter. Split seconds later, White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler, on the phone with an administration lawyer at the Supreme Court, got the word that the Court had upheld the law and that Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion. Ruemmler, with Chief of Staff Jack Lew nearby, gave Obama two thumbs up.
Obama hugged Ruemmler, went to the Oval Office, picked up the phone and called his solicitor general, Donald Verrilli Jr., to congratulate him and thank him for a job well done.
Obama knew the abuse Verrilli took from critics who speculated (some down-right feared) that his hesitant and sometimes halting presentation during oral arguments doomed the health care law. Obama never bought into that criticism and the White House defended Verrilli at the time, dismissing critics as sports fans, not necessarily well-informed ones at that.
Full article here