Picking Ryan Wasn't Bold; It Was Insane

[babylonsister]

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.

snip//

If we assume that we are talking about voters who are leaning Republican because they don't like paying taxes that are then spent on the truly poor, you could hardly do worse than to propose raising their taxes, slashing their earned benefits, and giving all the money to the rich rather than using it to aggressively pay down the deficit.

What this means is that the Romney campaign will have to leave any semblance of the truth completely out of their campaign rhetoric. They will have to do whatever it takes to prevent white working class folks and seniors from believing what every independent analyst is telling them. And they will have to stoke whatever anxieties they can to convince these voters that Obama is not on their side.

more...

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

[HereSince1628]

1. Yes, but this is a political time when extreme differentiation is seen as a virtue by extremists

it is a choice that contributes radical polarization to the ticket re: progressive vs conservative ideology

It swamps, or is intended to swamp, Romney's political history, which is tainted by moderation on healthcare and women's choice.

The ideas debated on the stumps by the campaigns are now so obvious that you don't need pundits to explain them.

Even two tea-loving kids named Preibus and Paul, from rusty southern Wisconsin towns, could write the strategy sheets for what will emerge.

[Cosmocat]

2. Game on!

To this point, this campaign has been around Romney flopping around 1,000 different ways while screaming "OBAMA SUCKS!"

That was it.

Picking Ryan puts absolute definition to the race. Ryan's budget puts into hard numbers what the republicans have always wanted, but knew they could not just up and say because the general population would not have. So, you get the flag waving platitudes and social issues as a means to get into power and implement their disasters.

But, no hiding it now, now dancing around it.

For better or for worse, this country is forced to vote up or down on the true, clear, vision of what the republicans want for America.