Conservatives, freshly aflame with the cause of restoring liberty to the land, are sure it’s them. Bill Kristol opined: “Obamacare survives on June 28, 2012. It falls on November 6, 2012.” Sarah Palin offered the Court (and the Lord) profound thanks: “This ‘Obamacare’ ruling fires up the troops as America’s eyes are opened! Thank God.” Nothing fires up those troops, of course, like that old bogeyman of liberal tax increases—and in keeping the ACA alive by declaring that the “individual mandate” could only be imposed by Congress through its power of taxation, Chief Justice John Roberts handed the right a new rallying cry. “What we have now,” said Rush Limbaugh, “is the biggest tax increase in the history of the world.” It’s a false formulation, of course—but try telling that to the Tea Partiers waving their Gadsden flags outside the Supreme Court building.

How does this benefit Mitt Romney, though? Perhaps the grassroots right will be more fired up to back him—but then again, there couldn’t be more than a handful of Tea Partiers who planned to sit out Election Day and blow their chance to cast an anti-Obama vote. And Romney has powerful incentives not to make the ACA a central issue. As Paul Waldman notes, he’s always been uncomfortable with the subject—something about an individual mandate in Massachusetts, if we’re not mistaken? And the more Romney raises the issue, the more President Obama can fire back: This other guy wants to take away the many benefits of the program. As we saw today, Obama has finally learned how to explain those benefits in a clear and compelling manner.

The likely upshot? Neither candidate gains many voters—or loses them. As Jamelle Bouie writes, the only clear “winners today were the uninsured.” Which is ample reason to stop obsessing over the presidential horse race for a minute—and celebrate an uncomplicated victory for millions of Americans.