Picking Ryan Wasn't Bold; It Was Insane

[kpete]

Picking Ryan Wasn't Bold; It Was Insane
by BooMan
Sun Aug 12th, 2012 at 12:10:06 PM EST

Although Paul Ryan undoubtedly has some political and personal skills and will inject some much-needed energy into the Romney campaign, it isn't too hard to figure out why Democrats are elated about his selection. First, let's look at what picking House Republican Paul Ryan didn't do.

1. It didn't help Romney with women.
2. It didn't help Romney make any inroads with blacks, Latinos, Asians, or Muslims.
3. It didn't boost confidence in a Romney administration's preparedness to handle foreign policy, a la Dick Cheney.
4. It didn't force the Obama administration to defend new territory.
5. It didn't deflect attention from Romney's tax returns/avoidance.
6. It didn't help Romney move to the middle.
7. It didn't isolate Romney from the wildly unpopular House Republicans.

And let's look at what picking Ryan did do:

1. It forced Romney to try and fail to distance himself from Paul Ryan's budget plan. Romney now says he would have signed Ryan's budget, and he therefore owns a budget plan so unpopular that people don't even believe it was actually proposed.
2. It locked Romney in to a plan that raises taxes on lower middle class folks while effectively zeroing out his own taxes.
3. It locked Romney into a program that voucherizes Medicare, and twins him with a candidate who wants to privatize Social Security.
4. It, therefore, weakened Romney substantially with white working class voters and with seniors, who both hate the Ryan Budget with a white hot passion once they learn the details of it.
5. It saved the Obama administration the cost and difficulty of tying Paul Ryan and the House Republicans to Mitt Romney.
6. It created the best conceivable opening for Democrats running in difficult heavily-white states and districts.
7. It turned a battle of personalities, which polls showed Romney was losing narrowly, into a battle of ideologies, which polls show Romney will lose decisively.

MORE:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/8/12/12106/2055

[still_one]

1. It all depends how insane the American public is /nt

[coalition_unwilling]

2. Well, I saw somewhere that 70% of Americans believe that

angels actually exist, so I think one can make the argument for 'pretty fucking insane'. However, the poll did not ask how many believe demons actualy exist and many Christian fundamentalists believe that Mormons (Romney) and Catholics (Ryan) are Satanists. So it's probably a wash

[still_one]

3. excellent proof