There seems to be a serious split on this.
Can someone please summarize what’s really, really bad about Ryan?
Ryan will be made the poster child of Mediscare. The Rats will scare the seniors 24-7 that their social security and medicare will be killed by Ryan. A ryan look alike was already in their commercial pushing grandma off the cliff.
“Can someone please summarize what’s really, really bad about Ryan?”
He’s not “bad,” but he will not electrify voters like a Palin — or perhaps a Rubio. I don’t see the south identifying much with Ryan from Wisconsin. If Romney wins with anyone other than Rubio or McConnell, it will surely be an all out anti-Obama vote.
He voted for TARP
Nothing.
The "Do-Nothing" Democrats refused to pass a budget in the Senate because they were afraid that going on the record with ANYTHING would provide ammunition to be used against them.
So, when Republicans took the House and tried to pass a serious budget resolution, it was the only plan on the table. The Democrats, instead of offering a plan of their own, used the Ryan plan as a bludgeon against Republicans.
Ryan's "problem" was to think that today's Congress was really supposed to do something. What Romney has to do now is ignore the Democrat attack ads and counter them with serious policy discussion backed up with serious plans, and then make the MSM compare the lack of seriousness of Obama with the seriousness of Romney-Ryan.
-PJ
Nothing is bad about him. He’s conservative, smart, and articulate. Some people are just afraid the left will hammer us over the head because he wants to fix Medicare and Social Security. Who cares! The left is going to try to beat us over the head with it anyway, we might as well have someone smart and articulate to stand him to them.
Can someone please summarize what’s really, really bad about Ryan?
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I like him a lot. However, here are some downsides:
1) The ticket will be defined by the media and by Democrats as two, slick-haired, tight-collared, ultra-white rich Northern males who want to exploit blacks, Hispanics, women, elderly, and the young by giving tax cuts to the rich white Northern males like themselves. In short, a Romney-Ryan ticket takes away none of the Left’s main talking points, and, in fact only enhances them.
2) We have to win Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia if we are to oust Obama. I don’t know if Ryan helps in any of those states. He may, however, as others have correctly noted, bring Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and possibly Pennsylvania into play, but that is rolling the dice by spreading our side pretty thin in more states instead of focusing on fewer key ones. Think of the electoral vote instead of the popular vote.
3) He can be painted, unfairly or not, as a Congressional leader at a time when Congressional popularity is extremely low. Guilt by association.
1) He is A Conservative and the MSM and Democrats Really Hate Conservatives.
2) He is intelligent and articulate and the Dems and MSM really hate that a Conservative is able to explain his philosophy clearly. They tend to lose big when that happens.
3) He is a Republican, Nuff Said there.
4) He isn't Obama and therefore is not god!
Need more?
He has no business executive, state or local government experience. He's not a veteran.
He knows the budget inside and out but that's it. Foreign policy? Who knows. Defense? Who knows.
Obama couldn't ask for a better running mate in terms of avenues of attack because he's run against the Ryan budget for the past two years. Ryan was depicted as pushing grandma over a cliff in her wheelchair. On that level it's a gift.
It looks like Ryan was picked because there was personal chemistry with him and Mitt. Ryan might help Romney appeal to certain demographics based on his bio. His father died when he was 16 and so perhaps can talk about welfare and struggle.
I like Ryan, I can see the advantage of running with someone there's chemistry with, but he does not naturally fit the bill of someone ready to take on the job of President.
His best attribute? He's not a lawyer. Unfortunately, his wife is. She's a tax attorney.
He has a plan to cut entitlements. Some are addicted to those.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/253503/entitlement-reform-yuval-levin
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52625.html