This is classic MSM spin, and it’s important to note the context. “First Read”‘s Mark Murray is not saying that the beating ObamaCare took at the hands of Ohio voters yesterday will hurt Governor Mitt Romney in the GOP primary…

He’s talking about the general election:

Not long after it was clear that Ohio voters were going to reject Gov. John Kasich’s (R) anti-collective-bargaining law last night, Republicans began referring to the outcome of a different Ohio ballot measure — over a health-care mandate.

The Republican National Committee sent this email to reporters today:

“[M]ost telling of all was in the battleground state of Ohio where Ohioans voted down a state collective bargaining initiative but overwhelmingly voted to repudiate one of Obama’s signature first term policies in Obamacare.”

The RNC is correct that the health-care referendum — which won by a wider margin than the referendum on collective bargaining — is a rebuke to the kind of individual mandate that President Obama signed into law in 2010.

But it also could be seen as a rebuke to the kind of individual mandate that Mitt Romney — the odds-on favorite to win the

GOP presidential nomination — also signed into law in Massachusetts.

Rubbish.

One of the reasons most MSM outlets, including “First Read,” focused so strongly on Ohio’s collective bargaining referendum (which the spoiled, entitled, crybaby public unions won last night) was to keep everyone’s eye off the ball of Ohio’s Issue 3, a referendum on ObamaCare. By putting all their focus on the union referendum and almost none of it on the ObamaCare referendum, Obama’s Media Palace Guards were able to protect Their Precious One from what assuredly was a blistering off-year election “defeat” last night and a sign of the President’s re-election troubles to come.

Moreover, the numbers prove that Obama’s signature piece of legislation was even more unpopular in Ohio than Governor John Kasich’s bill to end the immoral practice of public union collective bargaining. All in all, the President had a bad night in the Buckeye state, but in his favor is the shameless audaciousness of the MSM. How else does one explain a rather pathetic attempt to spin this defeat into a “double-edged sword for Republicans”?

Listen, I hate RomneyCare and all the thinking that went behind it. But comparing RomneyCare to ObamaCare — a state mandate to a federal mandates imposed on the states against their will — is like comparing an uzi to a banana.

Should Romney win the nomination, the choice for Ohio voters will be simple: You can vote for the guy who will repeal ObamaCare or you can vote for the guy determined to shove it down your throat.

Basically, it sounds as though Murray is trying to make himself feel better by writing this nonsense. The MSM did an effective job of keeping our eyes off Obama’s Ohio defeat, but that doesn’t change how unpopular the debacle called ObamaCare is in this crucial battleground state. Yeah, the union reform bill may have lost, but Obama lost by an even wider margin — over 66% voters went against him. Most surprising is that it even went down in the Democratic stronghold of Cuyahoga County.

This doesn’t bode well for Obama’s chances in this crucial swings state, so while the MSM celebrates Ohio’s public union victory, they obviously sense a disturbance in the overall force — as well they should.

In fairness, “First Read” is not alone. Check out the Washington Post’s headline.

Good to know the MSM lies to themselves along with the rest of us.