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The Supreme Court could give Republicans a huge victory Thursday by striking down Obamacare, and yet Republicans will have to restrain themselves from celebrating. Their polling shows that voters don't want to see them celebrating President Obama's defeat, Politico's Jake Sherman reports, and House Speaker John Boehner has asked them to refrain from spiking the football. This major downer follows earlier polls showing voters don't like many of the harshest attacks against Obama. In an election year in which the White House and majorities in both houses of Congress are within reach, Republicans are being forced to limit their trash talk.
Earlier this month, Boehner instructed his troops to stop calling Obamacare "job-killing" -- a line they've been using for years -- with the nicer message that Obama wasted too much time on Obamacare instead of fixing the economy. In May, Karl Rove's Super PAC Crossroads GPS found that harsh attacks against Obama can backfire with swing voters, The New York Times' Jeremy W. Peters reported. Those voters didn't respond to arguments that Obama lacked integrity or that he's a radical liberal. So the group used ads with a mom-ish actress lamenting, "I supported President Obama because he spoke so beautifully. He promised change. But things changed for the worse."