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
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 12th, 2012
8:05 pm
“Going into the doors. Holy moly I can’t believe the people,” Tim relayed to Jacobson. “One picture is the front of the line, one picture kinda the back, EXCEPT my camera can’t capture two and a half blocks of people. Many are actually women (the shock).”
Romney/ Ryan campaign event^^.
Packed full of their victims (women.)
heh
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 12th, 2012
8:15 pm
I’m shocked that a liberal like Nadar does not pay his fair share. What is it about Dems and liberals like Daschle, Buffett, and Geitner trying to get away with not paying their fair share, but calling for increasing taxes on small business.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
August 12th, 2012
8:17 pm
Simple, Rafe. They’re hypocritical scumbags.
@@
August 12th, 2012
8:20 pm
It’s time for AmVet to DENOUNCE Nader as the WORST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE EVAH!
schnirt
@@
August 12th, 2012
8:22 pm
Nader was also described as cult like.
@@
August 12th, 2012
8:24 pm
Nader could be mentally ill. Some of his former associates have speculated as much.
@@
August 12th, 2012
8:26 pm
Romney, Ryan share glow of honeymoon–WaPo
What’s WaPo trying to infer with that headline?
Common Sense
August 12th, 2012
8:38 pm
We had a popularity test four years ago. It has worked out worse than expected.
Now it is time to grow up, and make the hard decisions that need to be made.
JamVet
August 12th, 2012
8:45 pm
Given that the girl is one of the 100 most important Americans of the last century, has saved countless American lives, is widely recognized as a brilliant person and author and is the Godfather of American Consumers and has fought relentlessly for the little guy’s rights and protections and that Ralph Nader is a blogging, highly confused, banned nobody from Stickbridge George.
Well, there ya go…
JamVet
August 12th, 2012
8:47 pm
Time for the Closing Ceremonies, so the lil banned one will now have to go to work on someone else’s leg.
I suggest Rafe.
He’s always likes the attention.
Toodles, trolls…
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 12th, 2012
8:47 pm
“Given that the girl is one of the 100 most important Americans of the last century,”
As proclaimed by nobody of importance. . . .
@@
August 12th, 2012
8:54 pm
??!!?? Stickbridge George ??!!??
@@
August 12th, 2012
9:09 pm
The Romney campaign quickly dispatched the congressman to some of those battlegrounds. At a rally Sunday night in Wisconsin, the Republican pair were welcomed by a crowd of 8,000 to 10,000—the largest Romney rally to date. Mr. Ryan’s choked-up opener: “Hi, Mom.”–WSJ
Ahwwwwww. That’s so sweet!
cc
August 12th, 2012
9:12 pm
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin… :
“Obama fundraiser in Chicago. ‘Admission only $51, but room is half full.” Maybe no one wanted to hear the illiterate gibberish?”
Or maybe they know him too well in Chicago? It could just be that any would-be attendees are afraid to get caught in the crossfire enroute to the function or returning home. The homicide rate in Chicago is worse now than when Al Capone ran the town! That’s just another by-product of the obama (lack of) administration.
Beverly Fraud
August 12th, 2012
9:13 pm
“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.”
Yes, Kyle and Karl Rove in contrast is just a policy wonk who engages in only the most high minded of discourse…
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 12th, 2012
9:20 pm
??!!?? Stickbridge George ??!!??
@@ – Obviously, Amvetty (Kyle, I’m just following her lead, ie Tibby) is wasted.
I always thought Ralph Nader was a freak.
jbgotcha
August 12th, 2012
9:22 pm
Such sad sheep most of you are. None of these elected officials can save us. They are all merely systems managers, ill equipped to deal with the failure of capitalism as we know it. We are all commodities to these people and they will not stop until they have squandered every resource we have. Most of us will end up in the same boat ultimately. Without a strong community with a great diversity in ideas we will fail. Everything on Fox and MSNBC or really any major news outlet is propaganda. Wingfield is no different. He works for the oligarchs.
Common Sense
August 12th, 2012
9:29 pm
“Or maybe they know him too well in Chicago? It could just be that any would-be attendees are afraid to get caught in the crossfire enroute to the function or returning home. The homicide rate in Chicago is worse now than when Al Capone ran the town! That’s just another by-product of the obama (lack of) administration.”
We know him too well, also. The gig is up.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 12th, 2012
9:30 pm
Oy, Teh stoopid. It burns. . . .
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 12th, 2012
9:35 pm
cc – obozo can’t even hire stooges to stand in nowadays. The unions got better things to do like log some overtime or man a picket line. The community organizers have organized their needles, spoons and butane lighters and have zoomed off into oblivion. The flash mob struck the wrong location. rahm had the city workers busy harassing Chickfila.
Not their fathers democrat party.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
August 12th, 2012
9:40 pm
jbgotcha: None of these elected officials can save us.
———
No, but they sure as heck can wreck us with their trillion-plus deficits and massive expansion of sloth-inducing handout programs.
A Ryan Shame (His Dangerous Plan)
August 12th, 2012
9:43 pm
@Lil’ Barry Bailout – Vote American
August 12th, 2012
8:17 pm
Simple, Rafe. They’re hypocritical scumbags.
____________________________________________________________
The name-calling technique links a person, or idea, to a negative symbol.
The person who uses this technique hopes that the audience will reject the
person or the idea on the basis of the negative symbol, instead of looking
at the available evidence.
WE ARE MORE INTELLIGENT AND WILL NOT FALL FOR YOUR NAME
CALLING TECHNIQUE. IT SHOWS YOUR LACK OF CLASS.
A Ryan Shame (His Dangerous Plan)
August 12th, 2012
9:46 pm
@Lil’ Barry Bailout – Vote American
August 12th, 2012
9:40 pm
jbgotcha: None of these elected officials can save us.
———
No, but they sure as heck can wreck us with their trillion-plus deficits and massive expansion of sloth-inducing handout programs.
______________________________________________________________
The Dangerous Ryan Plan WILL TAKE 28 years to reduce the DEFICIT.
THE BOY WONDER RYAN AIN’T SUCH A WONDER AFTER ALL.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 12th, 2012
9:59 pm
“The Dangerous Ryan Plan WILL TAKE 28 years to reduce the DEFICIT.”
And since it took longer than that to create, do you wish it to take less time?
Because if it did, you’d be whining even louder than you are now, Shame.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 12th, 2012
9:59 pm
There will be no fruitful dumpster-diving, a la Sarah Palin. Instead they are bragging about a 290-page Ryan opposition research paper from the left-wing super PAC American Bridge that focuses on the congressman’s plan to reform Medicare to offer a “premium support” option—a proposal he crafted with Oregon’s Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden.
What???????? A dummycrat wants to throw grandma off the cliff??????
A Ryan Shame (His Dangerous Plan)
August 12th, 2012
10:01 pm
THE BOY WONDER RYAN HAS been characterized as a radical
budget-cutter who wants to TOSS GRANNY OUT OF HER WHEELCHAIR
and down a flight of stairs.
He voted for Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, TARP, auto bailouts,
and ALL THE WARS waged by George W. Bush.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 12th, 2012
10:03 pm
And some people actually see the light when a freight train is coming at you.
You and the Democrats remain in the dark.
A Ryan Shame (His Dangerous Plan)
August 12th, 2012
10:05 pm
@Tiberius – pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 12th, 2012
9:59 pm
“The Dangerous Ryan Plan WILL TAKE 28 years to reduce the DEFICIT.”
And since it took longer than that to create, do you wish it to take less time?
Because if it did, you’d be whining even louder than you are now, Shame.
—————————————————————————————————————
But it nows seems that the 2012 election may come down to
a vision of a government that either spends $1 trillion or $2 trillion
more annually than we do now. Which is not a welcome development.
BTW, some of you WON’T BE AROUND IN 28 YEARS SO WHAT
DO YOU CARE?
TGT
August 12th, 2012
10:08 pm
I am a social liberal on personal issues, NOT on government issues. That means I don’t believe that government needs to get into who should and shouldn’t marry, who can or cannot have an abortion…
Then you ARE a liberal on govt. issues. If you believe that govt. can redefine marriage and should not protect the most innocent and vulnerable among us, you are a liberal. Sorry. Live with it or change.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 12th, 2012
10:11 pm
Some of us care what kind of country we leave to our children and grandchildren.
Some of us care about making sure that the greatest nation even known on the face of this Earth continues on.
Some of us care that the freedom and individual liberty and responsibility our Founding Fathers meant for us to enjoy should be cherished by this and succeeding generations; NOT a reverence for government.
Some of us have principles, Shame, and would like for others to have them as well.
THAT is why some of us care – today, tomorrow, and when we’re long gone.
Old Timer
August 12th, 2012
10:16 pm
Being an Old Timer I have advised anyone in the family that votes for Obama is cut out of the will.
A Ryan Shame (His Dangerous Plan)
August 12th, 2012
10:16 pm
@Tiberius – pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 12th, 2012
10:03 pm
And some people actually see the light when a freight train is coming at you.
You and the Democrats remain in the dark.
________________________________________________________
The LIGHT is not an ILLUSION. The FREIGHT TRAIN is.
The future depends on what we do in the present.
finn mccool
August 12th, 2012
10:17 pm
Ryan’s budget is so devastating to the poor and middle class that it earned him a rebuke from the nation’s Catholic Bishops, the first time in memory they’ve entered politics for any reason but to deny women freedom and promote Republicans.
http://www.salon.com/2012/08/12/paul_ryan_randian_poseur/
A Ryan Shame (His Dangerous Plan)
August 12th, 2012
10:22 pm
@Old Timer
August 12th, 2012
10:16 pm
Being an Old Timer I have advised anyone in the family that votes for Obama is cut out of the will.
______________________________________________
Wisdom doesn’t automatically come with old age. Nothing does -
except wrinkles. It’s true, some wines improve with age. But only
if the grapes were good in the first place.
AND
The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools.
TGT
August 12th, 2012
10:29 pm
The Catholic Bishops have taken the correct positions on abortion and marriage, however, it seems that, along with many other Americans they need to learn this simple truth: It is no act of charity to be generous with someone else’s money.
No doubt the Catholic Church has seriously sincere motives here, and thinks that such a socialist position is in line with Christ’s teaching. However, Jesus teaches us to be personally generous, not to use the power of govt. to take the wealth of one to provide for another–especially to the extent that it occurs in the U.S. today.
finn mccool
August 12th, 2012
10:32 pm
In the 70s, of course, Ryan’s GOP won over the white working class with these sorts of anti-welfare appeals, and at the time it was understood that the takers weren’t white. The toughest issue for today’s GOP is that increasingly, government takers are white; many are white seniors, the core of the GOP base….the more federal money a county receives, the more likely it is to vote Republican. That money might not be merely food stamps or temporary aid for needy families; it might also be crop subsidies, housing payments, Medicaid and even military spending, along with the wildly popular Medicare and Social Security.
salon.com
@@
August 12th, 2012
10:45 pm
And here I thought liberals didn’t want the church interfering in matters of government. I wish you guys would make up your mind (singular).
Just as many Catholics are opposed to the Church’s stance on contraception, it’s highly conceivable that they’ll go against the CC and vote for Ryan whether the Bishops approve or not. It’s not like the Bishops enter the voting booth with the parishioners.
Just as blacks are not a monolithic group, neither are Catholics.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 12th, 2012
10:51 pm
“If you believe that govt. can redefine marriage”
I think only the Church can define marriage. Why do you think government has a role in the personal relationships of two consenting adults, TGT?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
August 12th, 2012
10:53 pm
Finn McCool – still living in the ’70’s.
independent thinker
August 12th, 2012
11:11 pm
T-”Discredited talking points” –Sounds like the excuses of the Neocons that got us into the trillion dollar boondoggle in Iraq. Just ignore the facts on the ground and go with some political view point
to make people believe you are macho and can police the world at someone else’s lives and expense.
Hillbilly D
August 12th, 2012
11:45 pm
In the 70s, of course, Ryan’s GOP won over the white working class with these sorts of anti-welfare appeals, and at the time it was understood that the takers weren’t white.
As I remember back in the 1970’s, there were more whites on public assistance, than non-whites. That was always one of the great misconceptions.
TGT
August 13th, 2012
12:13 am
Ever heard of prostitution or laws against drug-abuse Tiberius? However, I never said anything govt. getting into folks personal relationships. Good governments for centuries have understood that it is to societies benefit to recognize and support traditional (biblical) marriage.
Thomas Heyward Jr.
August 13th, 2012
6:34 am
Ryan is nothing but a master con man. He uses camouflage when he goes bow hunting and uses free market rhetoric as camouflage to grow the state.
.
Pretty much the same result………………for the deer and the sheep.
Streetracer
August 13th, 2012
6:36 am
I have seen on some other sites people already wanting to see Ryan’s tax returns. Seems to me that no one should talk about other folk’s taxes until after they have released their own.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
August 13th, 2012
6:38 am
Who’s Ron Paul voting for, Thomas?
marko
August 13th, 2012
6:40 am
This year year has been the hottest ever recorded. All across the country, crops are coming in as a total loss. Not to worry about the Red State tractor Queens though. they have federal crop insurance.
Twenty insurance companies in Bermuda, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Canada and the U.S. were paid $7.1 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds from 2007 to 2011 to sell American farmers crop insurance policies, an Environmental Working Group analysis shows. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency paid these companies for administrative and operating expenses for the federally subsidized crop insurance program.
By definition government waste is the money the government gives to somebody else. The government picks up the tab for 62% of cost of federal crop insurance. Without it many farmers would be out of business. Their farms auctioned off, and their homes lost.
unlike 1938 when federal crop insurance began, few Americans work on farms these days. most the actual labor is done by migrant farm workers. As you silly liberals can clearly see , welfare’s for millionaires. Today government steals from the rich to give to the rich. If you aint rich, they really don’t have the time to waste on you. Remember elections cost money, and from congressmen’s eyes we’re all pretty much a bunch of dead beats.
What do you what to bet that grandma’s Medicare is expendable after your elected hero pockets the check from a generous foreign insurance company?
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
August 13th, 2012
6:48 am
Yes, marko, what we need is for the tax payers to be on the hook for every bad thing that might befall anyone. Grow up.
#Occupy my desk...
August 13th, 2012
6:56 am
I do have to hand it to Obama, he has everyone watching the bouncing ball with Bain & Romney’s tax returns, that nobody is noticing that we are slipping back into recession, gas is back at $4, dismal reports on employment, manufacturing and econ growth – all while adding trillions in debt. Masters of misdirection – Wars on Women, Immigrants, Elderly, Uninsured, blah blah blah. And let’s not forget – the 1%! Raising taxes on them wouldn’t make a dent in anything, but it would get Democrats fired up about sticking it to those fat cats! Pointless gesture.
Thomas Heyward Jr.
August 13th, 2012
7:09 am
Lil’ Barry Bailout – Vote American
August 13th, 2012
6:38 am
Who’s Ron Paul voting for, Thomas?
—————————————————————————
.
The Good doctor hasn’t said.
Because Ron Paul has principles, believes in Liberty and the Free market(and unlike Ryan ..has the voting RECORD to back his rhetoric)……..he will probably endorse Gary Johnson.
.
He would NEVER endorse the NDAA supporting R&R ticket.
.
Principles dude….Principles.
Peadawg
August 13th, 2012
7:47 am
“Why I like the Ryan pick” – Um, b/c you’re rich?
If you’re middle class, why would you vote for this guy otherwise?