Obama: 'The law I passed is here to stay'

President Obama early this afternoon in Maumee, Ohio, making a forceful case not just for Obamacare but also for continuing to move forward, instead of relitigating the battles of the past:

I will work with anybody who wants to work with me to continue to improve our health care system and our health care laws, but the law I passed is here to stay. ...

We will not go back to the days when insurance companies could descriminate against people just because they were sick. We're not going to tell six million young people who are now on their parents health insurance plans that suddenly they don't have health insurance. We're not going to allow Medicare to be turned into a voucher system.

Now is not the time to spend four more years refighting battles we fought two years ago. Now is the time to move forward and make sure that every American has affordable health insurance and that insurance companies are treating them fairly. That's what we fought for, that's what we're going to keep. We are moving forward.

Three things occur to me about this:

1. The president focused on the benefits of Obamacare, distilling it down to two central benefits: first, that it guarantees everybody affordable health insurance coverage and second that it ensures that those with coverage will be treated fairly. So not only will everybody be able to get coverage, it will be good coverage.
2. Obama acted like a winner'there was nothing defensive about the case he made. And he used the court decision not just to declare victory, but to portray his opponents as trying to move the country backward when we must focus on moving forward.
3. It's no accident that there was nothing in here about the stupid penalty vs. tax debate over the mandate. That's something for Romney to fight about'with himself'given that he's taken both sides multiple times. But when it comes to making the case for Obamacare, it's irrelevant.

One last thing worth pointing out is that President Obama linked his Obamacare with his opposition to the Republican plan to replace Medicare with vouchers. Romney will try to claim that Obamacare represents a $500 billion cut to Medicare benefits, which is not true. But what is true is that Romney supports ending Medicare as we know it, and if and when Romney makes that claim in a debate or a television ad, Obama already has his response ready'and it's an effective one.