Romney-Ryan. Dems Just Won the House. Oh yeah, and these guys get second terms.
Dem operative: “We’ve spent 18 months trying to make House races about their plan for Medicare and Mitt Romney just did it for us overnight”
Dem operative: “We’ve spent 18 months trying to make House races about their plan for Medicare and Mitt Romney just did it for us overnight”
And remember, the only way Romney could win is having this election as a referendum on Obama’s performance on the economy while offering no actual policy details of his own. And that was Romney’s strategy up until now.
The pick of Ryan puts an end to that strategy. This is now a choice election, which is the strategy the Obama campaign wanted because that was the way Obama would win.
You’re correct, DD. Romney will actually have to take a policy stand. Won’t that be novel.
When I told Mrs. Kitty, she said “Ryan – Isn’t he the guy whose retirement plan is ‘Logan’s Run’?”. LOL
The Romney/Ryan campaign slogan: “Current retirees won’t be affected.”
Obama’s gonna need some money. He spent a lot to get out front and define Romney before Romney could define himself; now he has to do the same for Ryan. Remember we know Ryan but most people don’t.
I know I am going to be sick of hearing the word “entitlements” in these people’s mouths. Obama’s going to have to throw in some prominent ads and speeches educating what entitlements really are. There’s a serious terminology gap. Geezers are enthusiastic about cutting entitlements as long as you don’t touch Social Security or Medicare. Republicans want you to think of entitlements as welfare, but I prefer to think of them as the way we take care of our elderly and our poorest.
Also, Ryan is even creepier than Romney.
Logan’s Run plan! LOL!
The Koch Brothers have found their puppets.
I know the Bible thumpers down here is Sussex the land of the fat man won’t be able to put it together but we now have a Mormon and a worshiper of Ann Rand the atheists on the same ticket.This also should be fun watching the elder Teabaggers attempt to defend doing away with medicare
It’s just before their convention and Romney is STILL trying to lock down his base. So it looks like he won’t even try to get votes from independents, right? Not a good sign for him!
Anyone remember Sarah Silverman’s The Great Schlep in 2008 to get Jewish grandparents to vote for Obama? This year’s job for all Democrats with older relatives is to ask them how well they’d survive with $6K/year to spend on their medical care.
@cassandra–unfortunately Sarah Silverman’s entry this year, offering lesbian “scissoring” to orgasm of a billionaire Romney supporter who’d give the money to Obama, didn’t go over half so well
Election’s over. Cass is right. You run to your right flank in the Rethug primaries fully understanding that you have to move back to the center to have a shot in the General. Then, that little inconvenient taxes thingy enable the right-wingnuts, Rush and Laura, to force Robomney to deal from a position of weakness. Ryan’s their guy, and Romney’s basically HAD to pick him to stem a revolt from the true Rethug kingmakers.
Oh, BTW, what’s Obama’s weakest demographic group? Old white guys. And he’s still winning w/o them. Wonder how old white guys are gonna like someone on the Rethug ticket who wants to eliminate Medicare and gut Social Security…betcha Joe brings that up…every day.
I don’t even think this choice puts Wisconsin in play, but it sure as bleep takes Ohio and Pa. out of play.
And we STILL don’t know what’s in those tax returns.
Seriously, this is one bleeped-up campaign.
Look at how small the crowd is for the Announcement event. The picture on TV is deceiving, but the picture at the link is a 360 panoramic shot: http://360.io/ejX7z7
Watching on CBS. Looks like it is about to rain in Virgina. That would be great.
CBS says all of the Midwest is now in play. Jesus, milking the horse race at the expense of reporting the truth.
Another irony for evangelical Christians: Barack Obama is the only protestant in this race. LOL. #headsexplode
@Jason… uh, yeah, Paul Ryan has never been elected statewide in his own state. He will likely lose it this fall.
The Romney logo looks llike a graph line trending downward.
I am stunned. Romney just flipped his entire campaign strategy – which was to avoid policy discussions at all costs.
Look at mitts undershirt. Is it magic? It was oddly visible when he was coming down the stairs.
Paul Ryan appeals to out better angels????
Romney just blew the intro and announced The Next President of the United States , Paul Ryan.
LOL! Just heard that!
Also… Romney says “we will preserve and protect medicare and social security.” Has he met his running mate?
Love how dKos has already branded these two — The Committee to End Medicare.
Also love how the Ryan pick also gives the Obama Team a quick venue to campaign against a Do Nothing Congress. Since presumably their wiz kid here has been part of the problem.
@Steve — apparently not, since I never even heard that. Yikes.
How many years of tax returns do you think Ryan had to submit for vetting? More than two?
Announced AFTER the Friday news dump and presented BEFORE most people even wake up.
Either it’s more campaign ineptitude or they want to make sure that NOBODY watches the Rethug Convention.
Usually, when something is this so obviously breathtakingly bad, I assume that they must know something that I don’t.
This time, I don’t think so. It’s just a breathtakingly bad campaign.
Notice also how both Romney and Ryan are using evil teleprompters.
BTW, has Ryan ever held a job outside of politics? I’ve heard that’s very important.
@ El Som, it also sounds like they announced before their much touted app sent the news. A botch all around.
There is no other way to interpret this: Romney allowed Limbaugh and the Pirate Queen to select his nominee.
To think otherwise would be to think that Romney, of his own volition, chose the living embodiment of the most reviled Congress in history to be his running-mate.
For the first time, I’m starting to think that the D’s have a chance to take back the House. How would YOU like to be a first-term R trying to defend Ryan’s plan to kill Medicare, gut Medicaid, and privatize Social Security to your constituents? At some point, they’re either gonna have to cut links with the national ticket, or they’re gonna lose.
For the D’s, I don’t think Romney could have picked a better target than Ryan.
Statement from Team Obama Campaign:
What did Kenny Loggins say?
Might as well start calling it the Ryan-Romney ticket. Looks like Ol’ CEO mitt is being told what to do by his shareholders (Kochs)
“Romney allowed Limbaugh and the Pirate Queen to select his nominee.”
The guy stumping hardest for Ryan was Bill Kristol, the guy who pushed so hard to get Sarah Palin on the McCain ticket. That worked out fabulously well, so you can see why they’d listen to him again this time.
Cass: Someone has dubbed the ticket “Thurston Howell/Eddie Munster 2012.”
Fuck this bullshit. I mean, great choice.
@Geezer, that was someone on Twitter and that is very clever indeed.
Oh my… looks like Romney is no longer on board with the Ryan plan.
Does he really intend to distance himself from the Ryan plan while naming Ryan as his VP?
@P “I am stunned. Romney just flipped his entire campaign strategy – which was to avoid policy discussions at all costs.”
Well, his other strategy wasn’t working… nor did it look like it would start working. If you want to stop the Dems from talking about your tax returns, force them to go to policy.
But the Dems will make sure that the Ryan plan is front and center. Now that strategy has legs. I do think this will backfire for all of the Republicans running for any federal office. I’ll be you that there are plenty of them cursing at Romney this morning as they kick their refrigerators.
Hey LE… another Romney flip-flop. 🙂
And the taxes aren’t going away.
“What did Kenny Loggins say?”
That Romney’s on a highway to the danger zone? Actually, maybe he should rewrite Footloose…
Screw loose! Screw loose! Romney is gonna lose!
He’s, a sleaze! Obama’s gonna win with ease!
Hack, on crack! Compassion’s what they lack!
Use, this news! Every wingnut’s gotta screw loose!
And Dems don’t have to go too far to talk about Medicare policy — there have been recent House Republicans criticizing the Ryan plan this cycle.
Finally we have two adults in the room. Both these guys are intelligent, capable and accomplished. It is a strong serious ticket. I pray that our electorate is as competent. If not, we can say good bye USA. I hate to say that.
I feel Rocky’s pain. I really do. I spent the Bush years completely befuddled by events. How was it that everyone couldn’t see what I could see so clearly?
We are all prisoners of our experience, and teabags like Rocky, are not merely prisoners, but utterly lacking in critical thinking skills – they are slaves to their wingnut media masters.
I am 100% sure that he has never had the thought, “Why do I think this?”
Isn’t it interesting that Rocky here would count someone who has spent the majority of his life working for government — as in never having a real job — as *competent*?
🙄
But then Jason just got finished talking about the teajadi lack of critical thinking skills.
This post and thread smell of sweet desperation.
Today is the best day EVER! I seriously can’t stop smiling about this as I’ve had a political crush on Paul Ryan since he released his Roadmap for America. I seriously swoon when he’s being interviewed.
Your point of view about Ryan will be shared by every other leftie zealot who was never going to vote for anyone but Obama. What you’re conveniently forgetting is his appeal to Independents and swing voters – you know, NORMAL people who spend time thinking of things other than politics like you freaks do 24/7. He’s articulate, intelligent, charming and genuine. And he’s easy on the eyes.
Good luck with your pathetic little Mediscare campaign. Fear has gotten Dems into office since the beginning of time. Maybe it’ll work for you again this time. You better hope so since your idol has nothing else to run on but a list of horrible economic indicators and miserable failures. Oh, wait! He did kill Obama with his bare hands (or something like that). Haha! Good luck! 🙂
Idol? Like the way you idolized Hillary? And after she didn’t get the nomination you went against every single principle/issue/policy Hillary believed in and fought for. What were you supporting four years ago? Sorry, I have more respect for David Anderson.
Actually, this VP choice rocks! I can’t wait until the VP Debate, assuming Joe agrees. He’ll get destroyed.
Rocky, does that mean you’ll move to a more right-wing friendly country when Obama wins? maybe Saudi-Arabia, or Iran.
Actually, it’s the choice and the timing that drip flopsweat.
One election in this country was run on the Ryan Medicare “plan,” and in it a Democrat won his district for the first time since the Civil War.
This choice didn’t just finish off Mitt. It puts the House in play for the Democrats. That conservatives are happy shows just how little they understand the reality-based world. Joe Biden might not be good for much, but he remains a great public speaker. Paul Ryan, unfortunately for the GOP, is none of the things Dominque claims, and is especially not a good public speaker or debater. Joe will mop the floor with him.
“I seriously swoon when he’s being interviewed.”
TMI.
“I pray that our electorate is as competent. If not, we can say good bye USA. I hate to say that.”
No, you love to say that. I know you love it because this is what I hear from the haters more than anything. “Goodbye USA.” “There go our freedoms.” “No longer the America I knew.” “He’s a commie bastard.”
Seriously, name one freedom you’ve lost since Obama took office. I’ll wait. You could point out policy failures, or economic woes, or any of a thousand reasons why you won’t vote for Obama. They are legit. But I just don’t get this lost freedom thing. I lost more freedoms under the previous administration than anything you could come up with.
Examples? Warrantless wiretapping. Monitoring of religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity. Monitoring of jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients. Indefinite detention.
Oh, wait, that’s right. I am now being forced to buy medical insurance, robbing me of the freedom to be a freeloader at the St. Francis ER and shifting all the costs on to the rest of you suckers. Silly me.
Why is it they are calling Ryan intellectual? I don’t get that. Maybe Republicans only get one intellectual, which used to be Newt until he was exposed?
It’s not over; there’s still a campaign to be fought, and a lot more campaign money on the GOP side. The chances that Ryan’s message catches on with voters are slim, but if it does happen the consequences are grave.
Ryan’s schtick is long-term deficits – that’s his particular way to justify handing the economy over to corporations and the wealthy while shrinking the middle class.
I expect to see a lot of charts showing some huge projected deficit in 2050. And then more charts showing a balanced budget in 2050 if we voucherize all benefits, cut taxes for the rich, and swallow a whole bunch of unrealistic supply-side growth predictions.
The long-term Medicare financing charts are indeed scary. But the best response is one Obama won’t give: national health care.
A lot will be said about Social Security going bankrupt or “not being there.” But Democrats haven’t said this enough – the worst-case scenarios for Social Security have it continuing to pay out 75% of benefits. That’s a gap that can be prevented by less drastic tweaks now, not privatization.
In Ryan’s vision of economic freedom, rich and poor alike have the liberty to sleep under a bridge.
Under the Romney/Ryan budget, Romney’s effective tax rate would be less than 1%. The economic vision being advocated by the GOP ticket is so extreme that people don’t believe that it is their actual plan when polled.
Last time conservatives were this happy was when Sarah Palin was added to the McCain ticket. Just sayin’.
No open thread yet, so just thought I’d give Rob Tornoe fans a heads-up — his cartoon is currently the lead item on Daily Kos.
The Romney-Ryan ticket will end the White House insanity. I’m sure that Obama and Blowhard Biden will blame it all on Bush.
This campaign will prove the Republicans will keep the House and win the Senate, while sending Obama and Biden packing back to private life.
I’m sure that Obama will have no problems for the rest of his life. He has probably set aside his own stimulus package in the Cayman Islands.
Travy, If you had even a little bit of data to back up your unhinged teabag jibber-jabber it would feel a little less like unhinged teabag jibber-jabber.
LOL! Cayman Islands is all Mitt.
But travy is merely earning his Koch Brothers Green Stamps. (He isn’t quite intelligent enough to reach the second level of the Pyramid and earn free waffle fries for every post along with the stamps.)
His mention of the Caymans, though, should remind us how relativelt scandal-free the Obama Administration has been, and what it was like, the period of the Bush years where a new petty scandal was showing up every day (the ‘male model’ posing as a reporter, the aide who was running a ‘gift return’ scam, the various people caught distributing or keeping ‘inappropriate images’ — either pornographic or racist, the ‘science advisor’ who never completed even his Bachelor’s Degree).
Now the worst the Conservatives can find — outside of Corsi-Farah fantasies — is complaining that a Congressman — and Senatorial Candidate — voted to save her state’s only hospital for kidney diseases because — oh, HORRORS! — her husband is a specialist in kidney diseases. (The patients who continued to go to the hospital, I’m sure, regret saving their own lives because of her ‘corrupt vote. — If you are wondering, the Congressman is Shelley Berkeley from Nevada, and she has a good enough chance at defeating Dean Heller that she deserves some support.)
But don’t worry, if Romney gets elected — slightly more probable than an invasion from another solar system this year, I guess — this is another way in which he’ll bring back the Good Old Days of the Bush Administration.