Senate Candidate Accidentally Reacts To Every Possible Health Care Outcome

Politico caught Senate candidate Richard Mourdock accidentally uploading three pre-recorded YouTube videos in which he responds to all possible outcomes on the Supreme Court's ruling on the validity of health care reform.

Politico caught Senate candidate Richard Mourdock accidentally uploading three pre-recorded YouTube videos in which he responds to all possible outcomes on the Supreme Court's ruling on the validity of health care reform. This seems to be the YouTube era's equivalent to a "Dewey Defeats Truman" mistake -- having contingency plans is good, but releasing said contingency plans too early is embarrassing. Someone quickly removed the videos, but nothing dies on the internet and The Huffington Post has reposted copies. Politico has also immortalized some of the words. (You'll be able to see at least a fourth of them again once the Supreme Court issues its ruling, we imagine.) Funnily enough, this minor snafu comes just hours after Speaker Boehner issued a memo cautioning Republicans that if the Court strikes the law down, "there will be no spiking of the ball." (That underlining is his.) Mourdock is definitely not doing that! He's simultaneously spiking the ball in the end zone, kicking a field goal, throwing an interception, and fumbling ... or something. We're not sure how that metaphor applies, but he's doing a lot at once!

In case you're wondering what Mourdock thinks about the ruling -- sorry, sorry, would think about the as of yet unannounced ruling -- In case the court strikes down the law, he says in part:

Barack Obama and Congressman Joe Donnelly are already putting Obamacare 2.0 together and they’re going to try and pass it once again. We cannot let that happen

That's code for: I wanted you to vote for me so I could repeal Obamacare, and here's why you still need to vote for me to prevent Obamacare.

In case of a partial strike down:

We now know that Obamacare came down as a split decision. The Supreme Court struck down part, but not all of the health care bill. You can bet the Democrats are gonna fight to try to bring it back and those of us who are conservative are gonna fight for the Constitution and for the private sector.

As in, I wanted you to vote for me so I could repeal Obamacare, and here's why you still need to vote for me to repeal Obamacare.

And in case they uphold the individual mandate:

Well, the Supreme Court has done what none of us really thought could happen. They’ve ruled Obamacare constitutional. Now, the fight has moved from the courts to the United States Congress. You can be sure starting January of 2013, if Republicans control the House and the Senate, we will be voting to repeal Obamacare once and for all.

This time with feeling: I wanted you to vote for me so I could repeal Obamacare, and here's why you still need to vote for me to repeal Obamacare. His statement in case of a totally inconclusive ruling is similar.

Hey, the guy sticks to his message. What's interesting to us isn't just that someone goofed, but that in goofing, they've given us a fun glimpse into the demands of a news-cycle/message-driven campaign. They actually recorded four videos! Every time we see a campaign reaction vid from now on, we'll wonder about all the videos that could have been.

Post was updated at 6:30 p.m.