I hope the far right enjoys itself today, because I don’t think the fun is going to last.

[kpete]

Ryan: More Powerful Than Romney
by Peter Beinart Aug 12, 2012 7:08 AM EDT
Mitt’s running mate has stronger ties to the GOP base than he does. Peter Beinart on how picking Paul Ryan hands Obama a big gift.

In a healthy political party, partisans are self-aware enough to realize the gap between their own ideological proclivities and the nation’s, and they give their nominee the space to bridge it. The Wall Street Journal editorial page may relish an assault on middle-class entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security, but most Americans emphatically do not. When George W. Bush followed Paul Ryan’s advice in 2005 and tried to partially privatize Social Security, his presidency never recovered. Americans like the idea of a smaller, cheaper federal government in theory, but as in-depth polling by the Pew Research Center makes clear, when you ask them about specific budget items like health care, education, and infrastructure, they back more spending by vast margins. And when you ask them how to cut the deficit, even a majority of Republicans reject doing so with spending cuts alone.

Mitt Romney has given the Tea Party the election they want: a referendum on dramatic cuts in federal spending. When Obama wins—as seems even more likely today than it did Friday—the message will now be harder for Republicans to ignore. Ever since 2008, one of the biggest questions in American politics has been when the Republican Party would realize it was out of step with America and begin overhauling itself, as Democrats did in the 1980s. Paradoxically, Ryan’s selection has likely hastened that process. I hope the far right enjoys itself today, because I don’t think the fun is going to last.

more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/12/ryan-more-powerful-than-romney.html

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Ha!

Good analysis!

[corkhead]

2. Weeeeeeeeeee!!!1!1!!1

[Tanuki]

3. All I have to do is remember how deliriously happy

they all were the day after Sarah Palin's convention speech. They all thought they had struck gold....turned out to be fool's gold, which became clear immediately.

[Lucy Goosey]

4. Excellent article

In other words, Romney has just chosen a running mate with deeply unpopular views to shore up support among a conservative base that, were it less fanatical, would have been shored up already. In so doing, he has forfeited perhaps his best chance to introduce himself anew to the constituencies that distrust him and his party, and he has teed up exactly the budgetary debate that Obama wanted. In 1996 the Clinton campaign worked relentlessly to tie Bob Dole to Newt Gingrich because of Gingrich’s association with slashing middle-class entitlements. Now Romney has done the equivalent of putting Gingrich on the ticket.

But it gets worse. Increasingly Romney looks like a man who can be rolled. He’s changed his mind on abortion and gay rights. He’s largely unwilling to defend the health-care law that was the centerpiece of his governorship. He went to Jerusalem and, with right-wing sugar daddy Sheldon Adelson looking on, refused to defend his own stated position in support of a Palestinian state. And now he chooses a running mate who was widely considered too extreme to put on the ticket until right-wing pundits launched an unprecedented public pressure campaign to make Romney do just that.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/12/ryan-more-powerful-than-romney.html

Wow. This is devastating stuff, and it's all true.

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. Great article. Ya know,

we might have had this LIV teabagging nonsense hanging over our heads for a generation, what with their "keep the Government out of my Medicare" misspelled signs and what not.

Now this is FRONT and CENTER and they are about to get schooled in what it is they keep voting into office.

No more black president racism, no more abortion, no more gay marriage panic - all of the Rovian canards are off the table. This election boils down to these people either accepting willful ignorance about what the GOP thinks about their best interests, or waking the hell up to it.

What they will not be able to do is avoid it.

[3feetofsnow]

6. The far right never enjoys this

The far right loves this stuff. The far right wants to take out all American's on any type of socialized handout. The far right hates giving up anything to anyone in need.

The far right is evil and nasty. They hate your freedom.