Will Ryan drop out before the convention?????? If the reaction is like FL

[CK_John]

he may see the prudence of giving Palin a second chance.

[Hoyt]

1. I'd like to think so, but then I thought that would surely happen in 2008.

Although, I guess Palin was not an overall flop in Florida.

[BlueStreak]

2. Republicans have been trying to kill Social Security and Medicare since day 1

And specifically Fred Koch and his boys have been trying to find a way do pull this off for 50ish years now. They aren't going to back off now. And Romney doesn't have anything to say about it. He has very quickly become utterly inconsequential in this campaign.

The billionaires are committed to seeing this through. Even if they don't get 'er done in 2012, they will keep pushing. If Ryan loses in a non-landslide, then they will push him again in 2016. If Ryan completely goes up in flames, then they will find somebody else to be the "next man up". It doesn't matter to the billionaires. People like Ryan are just pawns to them.

There is zero chance they will pull Ryan off the ticket.

[johnlucas]

10. This post speaks the real truth

The rich have been mad at FDR ever since he gave into the socialists of 1930s by implementing the New Deal.
And ever since that time they have been trying to figure out a way to rollback & reverse everything that New Deal established.
They have been trying to destroy that Second Bill of Rights.

That's why I hate the phrase "Middle Class". That was a bribe to stave off the Revolution.
That's why FDR made that New Deal. To keep the country from revolting in Revolution.
The Middle Class was always temporary, was always illusory. There was only Poor & Rich.
Don't get caught up in that Twilight Zone called Middle Class.

Every decade since you have the results of people buying into that falsehood & forgetting why it was put together in the first place. You get people blind to the inevitable aftereffects of the Rich getting even with FDR & taking back what they feel is rightfully theirs (they think EVERYTHING'S theirs).
Some that post at Democratic Underground here now once fell for this illusion & slowly realized how false it was.
Some that post here still haven't fully figured it out.

They have changed the entire national dialogue on the subject. Socialism is EVIL. Capitalism is The American Way™.
It's about "Welfare Queens" instead of "Corporate Welfare Queens" socializing losses & capitalizing profits.
It's now "Entitlements" instead of the money we're SUPPOSED to get after they take it out of our checks for decades upon end.
The way the whole DEBATE is framed shows the influence of those rich guys who own most of the media broadcasts in TV, radio, & print.

It's so bad that we make excuses for Obama's weak performance in office just because he's not AS bad as those Republicans would be. We make excuses for the weak wimpy Democratic Party who wither to these easily defeatable Republicans each & everytime.
All we do is beg for scraps & are thankful that we even get those scraps.

All we're doing is fighting for the sustaining of FDR's bribe.
These guys represented in the Republican Party are the ones who don't want you to even have THAT.
So they fight each & every election to chip a little more away. If they can't take it all at once, they'll take off some crumbs.
And they'll try to convince you that it SHOULD be taken.
"Oh Social Security & Medicare is broken. If we don't 'fix' it now it will go bankrupt."

Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan are just the latest in a never-ending line of figurines to represent the rich ones who want to take away FDR's concession to the Poor, FDR's bribe to prevent Revolution.
They will be back in 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028 & all mid-term elections 2014, 2018, 2022, 2026 to continue breaking off as many crumbs as they can until the cookie has gone away.

Romney & Ryan will lose in 2012. But what does that really mean if Obama & the Democrats keep doing the 'weak sauce' things they're doing now? The Republican Party & their Conservative Philosophy should have dissolved DECADES AGO. What's the holdup?
John Lucas

[BlueStreak]

11. And there was this little issue of the rise of the Nazis and fascism

While the ideal system from the perspective of the 0.1-percenters has always been the two-tier arrangement you describe (those inside the castle and the commoners down in the valley), there are occasionally "Oh Shit!!!" moments when the privileged class recognizes they actually need the support of the commoners. WWII was one of those moments. So it was not just the need to stem an uprising of the peasants in the wake of the Depression. It was also the necessity to convince the peasants to get themselves killed in protecting the system that was so kind to the 0.1-percenters.

[johnlucas]

14. Ah makes sense. Thank you for adding that perspective

It's a good thing I don't buy into that "patriotism" nonsense.
They play on that sentiment to get people to do as Major General Smedley Butler once described.
John Lucas

[davidpdx]

3. No, if (and I emphasis if) anything big were to happen

It would be a ticket flip. That is the only creditable possible thing I could see happening and this point.

[Tunkamerica]

4. no?

that seems unbelievably unrealistic

[cali]

5. no. Let me put that in caps: NO

First you're convinced Romney's dropping out and now it's Ryan.

Neither are dropping out. Period. Full Stop.

Romney/Ryan is the Republican Ticket.

[CK_John]

6. I'll wait for the convention to be sure. nt

[BlueStreak]

12. Yes, of course. Only a health issue or felony charge would change that.

It isn't that complicated. 85 days to go. They have a convention, that is highly scripted. There are 4 debates where they will bob and weave for 90 minutes, avoiding the questions, just as Romney has successfully done throughout. Then they will retreat to Faux "news" and simply not take any more questions that are not softballs.

They will depend on their huge money advantage and their very active election fraud efforts.

That's the campaign in 60 words or less.

Will that be enough for them to win? Don't know, but that's the plan.

[spanone]

7. naw they will 'double-down'

stupid is as stupid does

[gollygee]

8. No. That would be too big of an embarrassment

They can't admit they're wrong even if they think they are. That's worse for them than keeping someone horrible.

[WI_DEM]

9. Oh, the right wingers who love Ryan would love that!--No he won't

why do people think these things are going to happen? Mitt will be the nominee (he will not drop out either) and Ryan will be his running mate because he has the Right behind him. He drops out and the GOP, right before the convention, will be a blood bath because a conservative hero was dumped.

[bigwillq]

13. No (nt)