"SCAPEGOAT" Politics: "Ryan is the way Romney & his aides escape blame for their now-likely defeat"

[kpete]

Thelma and Louise were "daring" too, but they ended up at the bottom of a canyon.

Noam Scheiber: "So, to review, the key recent development is that Romney is poised to lose a race he should by all rights be winning, and conservatives are poised to blame this loss on his ideological moderation... Against this backdrop, the rationale for the Ryan pick strikes me as pretty clear: Ryan is the way Romney and his aides escape blame for their now-likely defeat -- blame which would have vicious and unrelenting -- and pin it in on conservatives instead. With only minor historical revisions, they will be able to tell a story about how Romney was keeping the race close through early August, at which point the party's conservative darling joined the ticket and sent the poll numbers into steady decline."

"According to this narrative, the campaign will merely be guilty of a political misdemeanor -- being bullied by conservatives into a lousy running mate -- not the felony of strategically miscalculating against a historically weak incumbent (which is where the existing storyline was headed). That's a plea bargain any right-minded politico would take, even if they didn't consciously consider it in those terms."

http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/106035/picking-ryan-isnt-bold-its-highly-risk-averse


And why? To placate a party that doesn’t even want him as its nominee anyway. It’s psycho-weird. But at least it will carry the benefit, if this ticket loses, of keeping conservatives from griping that they lost because their ticket was too moderate. Conservatism will share—will own—this loss.

Is all that "daring"? Well, Thelma and Louise were "daring" too, but they ended up at the bottom of a canyon. If the Democrats handle this situation properly, that's where this ticket will end up too, and then the rest of us—the people who don't want federal policy to be based on Atlas Shrugged—can finally and fully press the case to the right that America is not behind you, and please grow up.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/11/michael-tomasky-on-romney-s-stunning-terrible-choice-of-ryan-for-vp.html

[sadbear]

1. And when they lose, republicans won't be able to blame it on

not being conservative enough.

[bemildred]

2. Yep, hang it on the Tea Party, that's part of the plan. nt

[BeyondGeography]

3. Yup..."I did everything you nutbags asked for."

Plus he gets them off his ass in the near-term. Win/win.