Romney + Ryan = Fail

[Garrdor]

my corporate overlord is superior to yours!

[Embar Angylwrath]

I guess I don't see it the way some of you do. I don't think that picking Ryan is a de facto fail. The guy is definately smart, and can hold his own. I'm going to love watching him and Biden debate. (Remember that Palin and Biden debated... to a draw). Its too bad he can't debate Obama, who I think is also very smart, that would be a good one to watch.

Ryan has held his seat in a Democrat district for a long time. He wins it strongly every time. I think he's been able to do it because he engages his district, really works the crowd. And Ifthe Dems bring up the Ryan Medicare issue, I'm sure he'll point out it is very similar the proposals put forth in a bipartisan commission established under Clinton. I don't think Ryan is "in the pocket" of special interests either. He's serious about getting the US fiscal house in order, although some may disagree with his plan to do it.

Anyway, it should be interesting. I did read today that donations to the Romney campaign surged after the announcement, so apparently not everyone was turned off. It will be interesting to see if Obama campign donations experience a similar surge.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Yes, I read the op-ed. The talking point is just as dumb and misleading as when Embar said it 2 1/2 years ago.

Obama has not dramatically increased spending. Nearly all of the current deficit is caused by Bush era policies and the recession.

Clearly, all Bush's fault... *eye roll*

[Lurker]

You can roll your eyes in denial all you want, but the fact remains that Bush era policies and the recession account for nearly all of our annual deficit. Only a tiny part is the result of new spending enacted by Obama.

[Partha]

The base doesn't trust Romney, so he had to pick someone they DID trust. That's (to quote Charles Pierce) the Zombie Eyed Granny Killer. Because Romney doesn't have any core principles of governing besides 'I like money, and I want more', he doesn't care about looking like a schmuck who just got rolled by the Wall Street Journal. He probably has already convinced himself that it's the bestest pick ever, even though he could get much the same effect with much less backlash by picking, say, a Gary Johnson.

Either way, it doesn't matter much. To win in the Electoral College, he had to pick up McCain states PLUS Virginia PLUS Florida PLUS Wisconsin PLUS one other state with more than 4 EV to win. Picking Ryan guarantees Florida for Obama. Romney will not find 29 EV's to replace Florida, therefore he loses.

Now comes the fun part, watching how big Obama's coattails get. As one front pager at Balloon Juice put it:

Finally, since I live next door to NY-26 and saw how Kathy Hochul won a R+6 district by painting horns and a tail on Paul Ryan, it’s clear the numbnuts running Romney’s campaign have no earthly clue about the shitstorm they just triggered. If the Romney campaign had opened up their research filing cabinet and pulled out the “No Shit, Sherlock” folder, they’d have realized that people would rather have Medicare than some free market voucher fantasy cooked up at the last Heritage / Cato invitational circle jerk.

This pick might actually have reverse coattails. Before Ryan, it was actually a bit hard to pin down Romney’s position on fucking everyone out of Medicare, and most Congressional candidates could say they were for some kinder gentler variant of Ryan’s plan to put Granny on an Alpo diet. Now every Democratic press secretary in a House campaign is busy with the wayback machine so they can cobb just the good stuff out of Hochul’s press releases.

[Torakus]

^
I Don't Like The Kid, But He's Got A Point, Jim.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

You can roll your eyes in denial all you want, but the fact remains that Bush era policies and the recession account for nearly all of our annual deficit. Only a tiny part is the result of new spending enacted by Obama.

Then for running on a platform of "Change you can believe in" he certainly hasn't changed much, eh? I mean if we're still running on Bush's "failed policies" when exactly do they become Obama's? Or can we just play the scapegoat game for an entire presidency?

[Lurker]

This is probably too complicated for you to comprehend, but I'll try anyways.

Not all policies end the day a President leaves office. Bush's deficit exploding tax cuts and Medicare expansion certainly haven't ended.

And since the Republican's have blocked Obama's attempts to expire some of the Bush tax cuts, attacked Obama for reducing wasteful Medicare spending, and are running on a platform guaranteed to drastically increase the deficit... they really have no credibility on this issue.

[Ddrak]

ETA personally I think a choice like Condi Rice would have been really interesting, but I just don't think Romney is the type to run with a woman period.

Romney would need at least two women, like any good Mormon.

Dd

[Arathena]

@Fallakin: Defaulting on debt for no good reason is always a bad idea. Until the US Dollar gets abandoned as the world's reserve currency (not likely this decade given the Euro's troubles), QE is free money. The rest of the world will bitch and moan, but what are we really gonna do about it?


I should have also added that I think Romney (like any GOP candidate) had to pick up either someone Tea Party-ish or someone Democrat-ish. I think he would have been better off going for someone to the left side, as the Tea Party isn't going to vote for Obama anyway so you may as well try to grab as many votes as possible directly from him. Going TP side means giving the Dems a shooting target to fire up the base.

Dd

Right now, long term government bonds yield LESS than inflation. The world is paying us to print money and spend it. On anything whatsoever.

The whole point of the Ryan pick was to try to get the TP groups to actually show up, hold their nose, and vote for the primary architect of Obamacare, no matter how much it bites them in the ass. It's the people who think the government should keep its hands off their medicare that he's aiming for here.

[Harlowe]

If it's the "don't touch my medicare" folk he's trying to entice, wouldn't Ryan be an awful choice though? He's the one that wants to cut or privatise it isn't he?

[Fallakin Kuvari]

I think it was more about picking a strong conservative to make a stark difference between the Obama campaign and Romney's. Romney is a Massachusetts Republican, so he isn't exactly the most conservative politician ever.

[Arathena]

If it's the "don't touch my medicare" folk he's trying to entice, wouldn't Ryan be an awful choice though? He's the one that wants to cut or privatise it isn't he?

A significant portion of the Republican base is too ignorant to believe that Medicare is a government program.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

This is probably too complicated for you to comprehend, but I'll try anyways.

Not all policies end the day a President leaves office. Bush's deficit exploding tax cuts and Medicare expansion certainly haven't ended.

And since the Republican's have blocked Obama's attempts to expire some of the Bush tax cuts, attacked Obama for reducing wasteful Medicare spending, and are running on a platform guaranteed to drastically increase the deficit... they really have no credibility on this issue.

They had a full 2 years of Democratic controlled everything. They accomplished passing a new tax (thats not a tax, mind you. and if its not a tax its unconstitutional, but since it was ruled a tax it is), didn't pass any budgets and didn't accomplish anything else when they very well could have.

Again, when do these "failed policies" that Obama and the Democrats had full power to change become Obama's?

2 years ago Obama signed an extension to the "Bush tax cuts" after some "liberal resistance". Now Obama is the one calling for extensions to the "Bush tax cuts".

Yes, Obama and the Democrats reduced Medicare spending by 700bil. Paul Ryan's plan goes even further to help reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending.

[Ddrak]

They had a full 2 years of Democratic controlled everything. They accomplished passing a new tax (thats not a tax, mind you. and if its not a tax its unconstitutional, but since it was ruled a tax it is), didn't pass any budgets and didn't accomplish anything else when they very well could have.

Why do you assume the Democrats act in lockstep? We know the GOP does, but this accusation strikes at the heart of ignorance, assuming the "other side" behaves as "your side" does.

Fact is, through a combination of attempting to actually build consensus with the minority party, not being able to build consensus within their own party, and the GOP actively campaigning to derail anything Obama did, nothing much was done in the first two years.

Question - do you really think it was a BAD thing that the Democrats didn't ram an agenda down the GOP's throats and increase the political divide even further?

Dd

[Arathena]

Why do you assume the Democrats act in lockstep? We know the GOP does, but this accusation strikes at the heart of ignorance, assuming the "other side" behaves as "your side" does.

Fact is, through a combination of attempting to actually build consensus with the minority party, not being able to build consensus within their own party, and the GOP actively campaigning to derail anything Obama did, nothing much was done in the first two years.

Question - do you really think it was a BAD thing that the Democrats didn't ram an agenda down the GOP's throats and increase the political divide even further?

Dd

I do. The Republican Party is displaying all the classic signs of hydrophobia, and the nation needs to come to grips with it's resultant severe brain damage and insanity before we can put it down.

[Lurker]

Democrats had a supermajority (on paper) for a few months between Al Franken taking his seat and the death of Ted Kennedy. Not two years. But that's irrelevant.

The Republican Party blocked Obama's attempts to expire part of the Bush tax cuts. They know the rubes are too stupid to understand that they are attacking Obama for the results of policies the Republicans implemented and protect.

Yes, Obama and the Democrats reduced Medicare spending by 700bil. Paul Ryan's plan goes even further to help reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending.

Do you really think Romney is going to campaign on turning Medicare into an underfunded voucher system?

Question - do you really think it was a BAD thing that the Democrats didn't ram an agenda down the GOP's throats and increase the political divide even further?

They think Obama did ram his agenda down their throats.

The Republican Party is displaying all the classic signs of hydrophobia, and the nation needs to come to grips with it's resultant severe brain damage and insanity before we can put it down.

What do you think that's going to take?

[Arathena]

The Republican Party is displaying all the classic signs of hydrophobia, and the nation needs to come to grips with it's resultant severe brain damage and insanity before we can put it down.

What do you think that's going to take?

I wish I had any fucking clue. The depths of self-immolative foolishness in this nation are astounding. An actual progressive movement screaming the existance of the social contract from the top of its lungs might be a start. Might.

[Embar Angylwrath]

As to the Electoral College. I think Partha is right that R/R must carry Florida. I can't see a realistic environment that gets R/R to the White House without Florida. Whoever wins FL, wins the Presidency this year.

[Kulaf]

I don't know that Obama will carry WI this year. The Dem base there has to be a bit demoralized after the Walker loss, and with Ryan on the ticket, I think Romney will take the state.