Why I like the Ryan pick
I was out of the house all morning and didn’t have a chance until now to blog about Mitt Romney’s pick of Paul Ryan as a running mate. But now I have time, and I must say: Ryan is an excellent pick.
I have made a few mentions during the past couple of months about my enthusiasm for putting Bobby Jindal on the ticket, and I still think he would have made a good choice. But he and Ryan, who for a long time didn’t appear to be on Romney’s short list, are like a No. 1 and No. 1a for me.
Some people will say Ryan is a risky pick because he has laid out the most detailed plan of just about any elected official — from either of the two major parties — about how to put Washington’s fiscal house in order. That means he brings a lot of targets with him onto the ticket, about Medicare in particular. To those people I say: You are crazy if you think the Obama campaign wasn’t going to make Romney answer for Ryan’s plan anyway.
For one thing, Romney already had endorsed the biggest aspects of the Ryan road map. For another, it’s already abundantly clear that the Obama campaign, which has already suggested Romney is a felon and tried to pin a woman’s death on him, considers nothing off-limits in this race. Romney could have disavowed Ryan’s plan altogether, and there still would have been a TV ad at some point showing Romney helping Ryan push Granny off a cliff.
So, I don’t think the risk is as great as you might be led to believe. But the potential reward is all there.
Paul Ryan has been the face of the GOP on these issues for more than two years now, and he has proven unafraid of taking arguments about taxes, spending, deficits, debt and entitlements straight to President Obama. He will boost tea-party enthusiasm about the GOP ticket, and he might be just the edge Romney needs to win in key Midwestern swing states: not just his home state of Wisconsin, but also Ohio, Michigan and perhaps Minnesota and even Pennsylvania. Giving him a national platform to talk about these issues and his plans to address them, and putting the Romney stamp of approval on those plans, means Obama won’t have to answer only about his mediocre record in office. He’ll also, finally, have to tell us exactly how he would tackle these problems.
Sorry, Mr. President, but the Buffett Rule won’t be enough.
It’s incredible, really, that the man who has presided over three straight trillion-dollar budget deficits, and whose proposed budgets make no attempt to rein them in, has been allowed to skate by as easily as he has on this topic. Even Obama’s own party, which still controls the Senate, makes no attempt to work with his budget proposals, much less approve them. He is very vulnerable on this issue.
Mitt Romney is not going to win a popularity contest, and he’s not going to win a small-issues election. Michael Dukakis tried to win on “competence” and couldn’t even beat George “The Vision Thing” Bush. Even the stagnant economy is not enough to put Romney in the White House — although he must still keep hammering at that issue. Incumbent presidents lose when the public thinks the challenger has a better idea of where to take us, and how to get there. Putting Ryan on the ticket means Romney intends to fight a big-issues election, and that he has the running mate to help him lay out that vision.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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468 comments Add your comment
Dusty
August 12th, 2012
12:08 am
Goodnight getalife,
My true colors are red, white and blue! .
You made your usual “W” booboo.
So to you I say toodle loo..
Caveat emptor (Translation - "Don't Fall For The Old Okey Doke")
August 12th, 2012
12:14 am
@Dusty
August 11th, 2012
11:52 pm
Caveat,
You relate others to “killers” and then want to talk about name calling?
Your skin is not the only thing thick.
And; you are religiously wrong. so don’t use it to do the wrong thing.like insulting your fellow citizens which you do every day.. .
__________________________________________________________
THERE YOU PEOPLE GO AGAIN.
Trying to SILENCE those who disagree with you.
SO it is okay for you to name call (election jerks, Democrats: America-hating, debt-exploding, do-nothing obstructionists) ?????
The more things change the more THEY STAY THE SAME.
Caveat emptor (Translation - "Don't Fall For The Old Okey Doke")
August 12th, 2012
12:24 am
“Even the stagnant economy is not enough to put Romney in the White House — although he must still keep hammering at that issue.
Incumbent presidents lose when the public thinks the challenger has a better idea of where to take us, and how to get there. Putting Ryan on the ticket means Romney intends to fight a big-issues election, and that he has the running mate to help him lay out that vision.”
_____________________________________________________________
“Putting Ryan on the ticket means Romney intends to fight a big-issues election, and that he has the running mate to help him lay out that vision.”
MYTH ROBME’S ULTIMATE GOAL IS FOR MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES TO PAY
ZERO TAXES.
AND THE MIDDLE CLASS WILL MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE.
killerj
August 12th, 2012
12:27 am
Show Time!
Kzguy
August 12th, 2012
4:53 am
You better believe the Obama camp said thanks for the late birthday gift. Ryan is the only one with a plan, a very bad plan. Now the attacks can be focused on Ryan’s plan and Mitt’s smugness
SBinF
August 12th, 2012
6:25 am
“Why I like the Ryan pick”
Because you’re a partisan hack who would never admit that Romney’s campaign is unraveling like a cheap Christmas sweater.
Joel Edge
August 12th, 2012
7:00 am
Your co-worker had a good point on this, Kyle. The Ryan pick sets a clear tone. Many people have mentioned Ryan and his budget are unpopular. Sometimes things that are good for you aren’t popular. In this case what’s good for the country might not be popular. We’ve pretty much reached a crossroads. You can either continue down the path of government control or you can try and roll back some the massive government waste and interference.
I personally think it’s a fifty-fifty shot. This might be the point where history considers the tipping point of the United States. If you believe that the Democrat Party and the federal government has your best interests at heart (and will for all eternity), feel free to vote for President Obama and the entire Democrat ticket. Understand this; once the Democrat Party has gotten support well above the fifty percent level of dependance, from then on the mob rules. Go read your history people. It happened to Rome and it can happen to us as well. We can lose our republic as easily as they did.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
August 12th, 2012
7:33 am
Kzguy: Ryan is the only one with a plan
——————–
Occasionally a lefty accidentally speaks the truth. The Democrats have no plan. Except to explode spending, deficits, entitlement spending, dependence, and sloth.
AU Liberal in ATL
August 12th, 2012
7:41 am
Kyle would like the pick even if it were Rafala.
I’d like to see you debate that doofus, Classless of 98.
GT
August 12th, 2012
7:51 am
The congress is the center of the problem in this country, it lives off red meat issues and clogs the veins of government with it’s soap operas. Never in the history of this country has a branch of this government run on thin truths and lies, unless it was the Nixon White House whose paranoia got the best of them too. Ryan comes from this body, is very representative of the 13% approval rating, the lowest in the history of this country and offers solutions that are physically impossible that he now must come in front of class and teacher and explain.
Poor Mitt really had no choice, he is leader of a nut house and of the nuts this one may be the best. At least now he may stop hiding and come out and have a real debate on the future of America. Poor Mitt…
Chris Sanchez
August 12th, 2012
7:53 am
A Romney/Ryan administration would govern more as moderates compared to the conservatives they are running as. Of course, compared to Obama/Biden, they are “radical conservatives” the media portrays.
marko
August 12th, 2012
8:00 am
So the tax breaks are to be paid for with spending cuts to our already flimsy social programs. Somehow it will result in an economic supply side miracle. It’s really going work this time. Trust them.
Paul Ryan’s a devout follower of Ayn “ Atlas Shrugged” Rand. He’s tried recently to distance himself from the old girl. It seems that many fundamentalist have learned that Rand was a atheist drug addict. Ayn once worked on a book called the Virtue of Selfishness. Help me out on this one, I can’t remember which one of the four gospels was the Book of Selfish. That’s the kind of snake oil the GOP selling these days. We spent billions of dollars on an election, and all we got was a lousy bottle of snake oil.
skydog
August 12th, 2012
8:28 am
Dusty @ 9:33pm
Well, looks like the liberals here are really upset. I mean it is almost time for the water hoses to calm these guys.
Are you from Birmingham Dusty? Do you own German Shepherds?
Are you a WWF fan?
You know what you can do with your hose.
@@
August 12th, 2012
9:35 am
Caveat:
THE LAST TIME I CHECKED I paid INTO SOCIAL SECURITY.
THEY ARE JUST GIVING ME MY MONEY BACK.
But you’re drawing a pension. Not many people have that luxury.
Not willing to share the return on your investment?
Alrighty din!
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 12th, 2012
9:38 am
“So the tax breaks are to be paid for with spending cuts to our already flimsy social programs.”
This is so grossly incorrect it is unusual even for you, marko.
Let’s break this down, shall we?
The tax RATES are proposed to be lowered, and are projected to be paid for by ELIMINATING the current tax breaks, resulting in a flatter set of tax rates and a simpler tax code. The net result is that revenues will remain the same for most everybody.
The only spending cuts being proposed is an increase in the retirement age for people who are 50 (or 55) depending on which age is being bandied about at the time, and only to Social Security. Are you now admitting that Social Security is a “flimsy social program”? If so, congratulations on finally admitting that it is in trouble, because that’s what many of us have been saying for years. Now remember, no changes to Social Security are proposed for people older than the ages I wrote above, so seniors currently on Social Security have NOTHING to be worried about.
Oh, and btw, why don’t you tell us what Obama proposes to save Social Security? Maybe something he’s tried to get through Congress since he became President 3 1/2 years ago? Should be a short list, as in NOTHING!
Medicare? No changes to the program at first, except to block grant the money to the states and let them administer it best for them. Eventually transitioning the program to something more efficient through the private sector in conjunction with intelligent health insurance reform.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 12th, 2012
9:42 am
skydog – You’re the liberal, dude. You know what I mean?
bark, bark?
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 12th, 2012
9:45 am
Tiberius is correct in that, if you are older than 55, Soc Sec and Medicare are more assured for you under Romney/Ryan than under Obama. R/R has a plan exempting you from any changes. Obama……………………………………………………………………………………………..well, he will improvise something, when needed.
Del
August 12th, 2012
9:53 am
The libs are as terrified here as they are over on Bookmans blog about Paul Ryan’s selection.. You can tell by the stupid immature insults they’ve been throwing out.
Oxwinkle
August 12th, 2012
10:07 am
The Dems could put Hitler on the ticket and lib media would be gushing! Growing in up Kenya does not give someone foreign policy experience.
Skip
August 12th, 2012
10:41 am
Off topic much ?
JamVet
August 12th, 2012
10:48 am
Yes, I for one, am absolutely TERRIFIED of this ticket!
OH NOES! NOT PAUL RYAN!!! AND MITT ROMNEY!!!
LOL.
The well-coifed cowardsare gonna be just another footnote in Barry’s biography…
Up Up and Away
August 12th, 2012
10:49 am
Kyle
Time will tell if this was a good pick. Not sure were Ryan pulls votes from outside of the
base, however he will surely galvanize that vote.
Be honest: You would have said you liked any pick.
JamVet
August 12th, 2012
10:54 am
A Romney/Ryan administration would govern more as moderates compared to the conservatives they are running as.
Chris, I am not so sure.
Remember what happened to GHWB when he did that very thing?
The rabid red meat eaters that run the Republican machine went ballistic.
This is the new GOP. Look at 18 of the 20 candidates that they have desperately tried to nominate in the past two elections! And failed. LOL at them.
When they say jump, you have to jump. No independent thought is tolerated. Everyone must be a fanatical extremist.
NO MODERATES ALLOWED.
@@
August 12th, 2012
10:56 am
82 y.o. Soros is marrying a 40 y.o. yoga instructor.
No comment, except to say…
Down Dog.
ew
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 12th, 2012
11:05 am
Del
August 12th, 2012
9:53 am
The libs are as terrified here as they are over on Bookmans blog about Paul Ryan’s selection.. You can tell by the stupid immature insults they’ve been throwing out.
Del- Haven’t been over there to look but they get pretty stupid and immature every day.
Is it that much worse?
Up Up and Away
August 12th, 2012
11:08 am
I report
Too bad you can’t post over there. You would get them good
Standing on the top
August 12th, 2012
11:09 am
Del
August 12th, 2012
9:53 am
The libs are as terrified here as they are over on Bookmans blog about Paul Ryan’s selection.. You can tell by the stupid immature insults they’ve been throwing out.
Dusty
August 12th, 2012
11:19 am
Well, it is a lovely day. I am so pleased that Americans have a great choice in selecting the next president. Romney and Ryan are a fine highly qualified team that will lift this country to its full potential. Gonna be a special day in America and the country will give a sigh of relief.
See ya later……let’s celebrate!!
Just Say No to New Taxes
August 12th, 2012
11:44 am
Did you see today’s story in the ajc about the beltline staff crooks misuse of credit cards? and that double ugly crook, imho, the stupid mayor, wanted to send the bill for the beltline to cobb county under the T-SPLAT program! Every member of the belt line commission should be fired, indited for theft, arrested, perp walked, and sent to jail without bond until trial! Make it so……
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 12th, 2012
11:47 am
From Yahoo News
Obama’s vision for America will make the rest of the country look like California, minus the beautiful scenery and warm weather.
Obama’s America is today’s California–complete with $100 billion taxpayer funded bullet trains to nowhere; out of control environmental extremists who have destroyed family farms and left some of the most fertile farm land in America fallow in order to protect a three inch fish; permanent high unemployment; government policies hostile to small business job creators; crippling high taxes; an abysmal real estate market; bloated government that wastes taxpayer money; endless budget shortfalls due to massive unfunded liabilities; city after city declaring bankruptcy; and a state government run by, in the words of one Wall Street Journal writer, “a brothel of environmentalists, lawyers, public-sector unions and legislative bums.”
Sarah Palin
Always ready to knock it out of the park!
Standing on the top
August 12th, 2012
11:56 am
“Sarah Palin
Always ready to knock it out of the park!”
sort of like in 08, uh?
Standing on the top
August 12th, 2012
11:58 am
you bet’cha
Just Say No to New Taxes
August 12th, 2012
11:58 am
I don’t see where giving fat cats like Mitt and Steve Swartzman a 15% income tax rate is going to create jobs. Remember, you and I are paying a marginal income tax rate of over 30% on our pathetically small hundreds of thousands of dollars of income, plus that pesky social security tax that phases our after a 110K for Mitt and the boys. Special low taxes for special fat cats does not fly with me!
Lynnie Gal
August 12th, 2012
12:02 pm
The platform Republicans are now running on–The Ayn Rand plan. A few quotes from Paul Ryan’s personal hero, Ayn Rand, (author of Atlas Shrugged) : “The man at the bottom who, left to himself, would starve in his hopeless ineptitude, contributes nothing to those above him, but receives the bonus of all their brains…Wealth is …made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools, by the able at the expense of the incompetent, by the ambitious at the expense of the lazy….”What are your masses but mud to be ground underfoot, fuel to be burned for those who deserve it?”–Ayn Rand
Ryan purchases copies of Rand’s books for his staff as required reading.
Ayn Rand on Christian Compassion:
“Now there is one word–a single word–which can blast the morality of altruism out of existence and which it cannot withstand–the word: “Why?” Why must man live for the sake of others? Why must he be a sacrificial animal? Why is that the good? There is no earthly reason for it–and, ladies and gentlemen, in the whole history of philosophy no earthly reason has ever been given. It is only mysticism that can permit moralists to get away with it. It was mysticism, the unearthly, the supernatural, the irrational that has always been called upon to justify it… one just takes it on faith.”
Here’s Ryan praising Rand: http://youtu.be/WmW19uoyuO8
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 12th, 2012
12:18 pm
Standing
I noticed you didn’t challenge anything she said, just used the liberal tactic of making fun of the messenger to deflect from the message. You betcha!
The same thing will be done to Romney/Ryan every day by the tools in the comedy business and the MSM.
Standing on the top
August 12th, 2012
12:23 pm
“by the tools in the comedy business and the MSM.”
Tools always know tools, uh?
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 12th, 2012
12:26 pm
NO MODERATES ALLOWED
Yep, when Evan Byah threw in the towel, the last conservative Democrat, left Washington.
@@
August 12th, 2012
12:34 pm
Moderated? O.K., I’m gonna have to break this up.
Scroll down to Archive Video—Paul Ryan on the difference between being pro-business and pro-market.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/janesville-buzzing-about-ryans-elevation-pl6f8e5-165864816.html
@@
August 12th, 2012
12:35 pm
Some may also want to check out a JSOnline article from 2009.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/43705712.html
Radical? I’m not seeing a radical in Paul Ryan.
Matz
August 12th, 2012
12:37 pm
I like the choice too. I appreciate that the factions that hijacked the GOP have become more honest, choosing to drop the pretense that they give a rat’s fuzzy about the working people of this country. Some people matter, and some people don’t. Now they can stand honestly on their true platform, and we all see it for what it is. Well done!
Karen
August 12th, 2012
12:45 pm
Can you say “Death Panel Kyle?
SBinF
August 12th, 2012
12:52 pm
The Ryan pick was to shore up Romney’s base. That is, Romney was worried about his own party coming out to vote for him. The Ryan pick will do nothing to pick up voters outside of the Republican’s ever shrinking tent.
Joseph
August 12th, 2012
1:03 pm
Ryan has an articulate message….
http://fincherstew.com/
Standing on the top
August 12th, 2012
1:09 pm
Joseph
Ryan will insure that the base comes out, I think that is a given. What other demographics will he be pulling from that will be significant enough to assist Romney in winning the White House.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
August 12th, 2012
1:10 pm
SBinF: …the Republican’s ever shrinking tent.
————————
Two words: November 2010.
Republicans win when American voters outnumber Democrats. Simple.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
August 12th, 2012
1:14 pm
Where’d “mike” go? Last night he wanted to see where in the Medicare trustees’ report it said the trust fund was going to be bankrupt in 2024. Now, for some reason, he’s not so interested in discussing the topic.
“mike” got schooled. I win.
TGT
August 12th, 2012
1:19 pm
As I noted on Bookman’s blog yesterday, it didn’t take long for the “Lie of the Year” to get repeated.
5 Things Obama Doesn’t Want You To Know About Ryan And Medicare
1.) The Republican reform plan totally exempts anyone over the age of 55 from any changes…
2.) The Democrats’ non-plan does the opposite. It has already slashed more than half-a-trillion dollars (Update: $741 Billion, according to the latest CBO score) from Medicare to fund Obamacare,…
3.) Medicare’s own accountants have calculated that Medicare will be insolvent within 12 years. As Democrats claim that Romney and Ryan want to “kill Medicare” or “end Medicare as we know it,” they fail to mention that the calendar and basic arithmetic will do that in the face of inaction. Doing nothing is President Obama’s plan because it tempts voters with the illusion that everything is going to be just fine…
4.) After his plan was criticized for being too partisan in the first “Path to Prosperity” budget, Paul Ryan adjusted his reforms in the FY 2013 version. He updated his Medicare reform to embrace a bipartisan solution he co-crafted with progressive Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), which maintains the original “premium support” model, but includes traditional Medicare as an option for future seniors…
5.) The Romney/Ryan plan does not impose “draconian and radical cuts.” In fact, the Republican budget increases spending. Every year. It simply slows the rate of increase…
Standing on the top
August 12th, 2012
1:21 pm
#6. She was a meth head
Caveat emptor (Translation - "Don't Fall For The Old Okey Doke")
August 12th, 2012
1:23 pm
@@@
August 12th, 2012
9:35 am
Caveat:
THE LAST TIME I CHECKED I paid INTO SOCIAL SECURITY.
THEY ARE JUST GIVING ME MY MONEY BACK.
But you’re drawing a pension. Not many people have that luxury.
Not willing to share the return on your investment?
Alrighty din!
______________________________________________________
I am sorry that some people will not have that advantage.
I worked for the federal government, private industry and I retired from
public education.
It is not a luxury……..its a blessing and I worked for it starting at 18.
If young people are smart they would find a job that pays into SS and another job
that offers a pension.
There are teachers who work part-time for example at Macy’s so that they can
pay into SS. School systems do not.
At retirement two checks: SS and pension.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
August 12th, 2012
1:28 pm
If young people are smart, they won’t count on a SS check, because that program is soon to become bankrupt as well. When that happens, promised benefits will not be as much as they are now.