Weekly Standard: Obamacare Ruling Benefits Romney

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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney holds his granddaughter Soleil Romney as he walks in the Wolfeboro Independence Day parade on July 4, 2012 in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

Kayana Szymczak/Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney holds his granddaughter Soleil Romney as he walks in the Wolfeboro Independence Day parade on July 4, 2012 in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

Kayana Szymczak/Getty Images

Jeffrey H. Anderson is a writer for The Weekly Standard and a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute.

According to a newly released Newsweek/Daily Beast poll of likely voters, the Supreme Court's Obamacare ruling makes Americans more likely to vote for Mitt Romney and less likely to vote for President Obama. By a margin of 21 points (32 to 11 percent), voters say that they are now more, rather than less, apt to vote for Romney. By a margin of 15 percentage points (29 to 14 percent), voters say that they are now less, rather than more, apt to vote for Obama.

Moreover, 59 percent of likely voters say that the Court's ruling will be at least "somewhat important" in deciding their vote for president, while only 36 percent say that the ruling will not be at least "somewhat important" in deciding their vote.

Of course, the ruling's lasting impact on the presidential election will presumably depend in large part on how effective Romney and other Republicans are at keeping the focus on Obamacare — and offering up a vision of real reform — and how effective Obama is at keeping the focus on other issues.