Posted on 08/12/2012 1:36:07 PM PDT by neverdem
Republican ticket will force the real issues onto the table
Mitt Romney’s choice of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate is a boldly clarifying jolt for a presidential contest whose issues and stakes have been in desperate need of definition.
Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Ryan has been the architect of low tax, and lower spending, proposals that the Republicans advocate as catalysts for economic revival and American prosperity in the long run. He is also an able proponent of the view that overly large government has become a smothering weight on the country.
By tapping the Tea Party’s keeper of the flame, Romney certified that he is running on a philosophy far different from that of his father’s GOP and even from that put into practice by the party of former President George W. Bush. He has beneficially centered the debate on the proper balance to be struck between the role of Washington and the dynamism of the people.
The time is now for this crucial conversation — now, when too many millions are unemployed; now, when the United States’ economy shows precious few signs of coming to life; now, when the costs of government are unsustainable and future expenses, including for health care and retirement, augur severe decline.
Clearly, Romney judged that the 42-year-old Ryan has both the policy chops and the personality to help make the race against President Obama about the big ideas that demand discussion rather than about the likability of the two contenders or about whether private-sector success suggests a lack of fitness to serve.
While Obama has described the election as a fundamental clash, the parlous state of the nation has driven him to play small ball with negative ads, off-the-charts innuendo about Romney and a misleading drumbeat that salvation can be had by taxing the rich.
Message: Romney would be worse.
The Republicans have watched Obama’s largely unanswered drive to define Romney with frustration. No more. Romney set the terms of the race he intends to run by deciding against conservative Republicans who have been less vocal than Ryan and would not have entered the fray as quite the lightning rod he is.
A gamble Ryan is, for sure.
He has advanced plans for addressing the country’s deficits and debt that would necessarily entail tough spending cuts, and he was early to call for reshaping Medicare by raising the eligibility age and giving future senior citizens the ability to purchase health insurance privately with government funds.
While Romney has broached versions of all those politically charged plans, Ryan has come to personify the ideas to partisans on both the left and the right.
They’ll stay in their polarized camps, as they would have no matter whom Romney had invited onto the team. Based on Ryan’s past performance, what Romney stands to gain is a partner who can both energize the Republican base and present the GOP platform to undecideds in the critical swing states in especially clear terms.
His middle-class roots and upbeat disposition should be helpful counterpoints to Romney’s wealth and formality.
In naming Ryan, Romney said they would campaign to restore “American aspirations and American ideals,” and Ryan declared, “We will restore the dreams and greatness of this country.” He said of Obama: “Whatever the explanations, whatever the excuses, this is a record of failure.”
James Messina, spokesman for the Obama campaign, responded: “As a member of Congress, Ryan rubber-stamped the reckless Bush economic policies that exploded our deficit and crashed our economy. Now, the Romney-Ryan ticket would take us back by repeating the same, catastrophic mistakes.”
The battle that must be fought has been joined.
In simple terms I’m thinking that Romney believes he can run a SOMETHING (his budget/entitlements reform plan) against an Obama NOTHING (no plan, just demagoguery) and win.
Big bet.
The safe bet is that he has called the Obama strategy correctly. There will never be an Obama plan to restructure entitlements and balance the budget. So we will get nothing but head fakes from the Obama campaign for the next 3 months.
It’s a bet on the intelligence of at least 51% of the American public.
I hope he’s right. Like I said, a big bet.
Good on ya, Mitt.
I’d like to think it’s a good bet. I’d like to think that even the entitlement drones sucking up the unemployment, food stamps and disability have some inkling of the horrible shape the economy is in, and that something has to be done to fix it before the entire mess spins out of control.
Ryan is an inspired choice in a lot of different ways. The Tea Party will rally behind him, the establishment Republicans can live with him, the Independents will like his clear answers and his common sense talking points. Then there is the budget...
The Democrats are going to have a hard time punching buttons about his budget when they haven’t proposed one in over three years! All he has to do is look the cameras straight on and say, “OK, the Democrats do not like my budget... Where’s theirs?”
We’re gearing up for the final sprint of the campaign system and with Ryan now on the ticket, the lineup is complete. It’s time to rumble.
Wrong!!! It's not the Republicans who are the advocates, it's the Conservatives. If the main stream Republican politicians got their way, the would just repeat what Obama is doing. Maybe not as blatant as the liberals. If it wasn't for the Conservatives, we wouldn't have had such a good showing in 2010 and Ryan wouldn't have been eligible to become the future vice president.
They'll endorse the Kenyan, exactly as they did in 2008, with the printed version of fellatio.
Do you actually expect Noo Yawk liberals, let alone the MSM, to ever to otherwise?
No one ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of the American People.
Well we have the opening...... Mitt Romney’s choice of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate is a boldly clarifying jolt for a presidential contest whose issues and stakes have been in desperate need of definition." "Republican ticket will force the real issues onto the table.
To me it seems like they like Ryan and Mitt.
(I forget which way the NY Daily News swings??)
“the parlous state of the nation”
Parlous. Had to look that one up. It sounds like perilous, which would seem appropriate. And indeed perilous is a synonym of parlous, but parlous has an emphasis on peril brought on by excess. Which of course is the perfect description of the Obama debt burdened economy.
Raya will be an excellent mouthpiece for Romney. I pray that his expertise is used properly.
“As a member of Congress, Ryan rubber-stamped the reckless Bush economic policies that exploded our deficit and crashed our economy. Now, the Romney-Ryan ticket would take us back by repeating the same, catastrophic mistakes.”
Blah, Blah, BlahBlah, Blah.
Blahblah, blah, Bush, blah blah.
Romney Ryan, Blah,Blah, catastropic, blah.
I really doubt it. Although the NY Daily News has become a liberal rag, their editorial board and their owner, Mortimer Zuckerman, have written some extremely harsh essays about Obama.
It is extremely lacking in foresight and insight for someone of Jewish decent to support globalism and the socialist agenda. Where do Jews, or anyone else for that matter, go for asylum and to escape persecution when everything is run by the same oligarchy?
[ He has advanced plans for addressing the country’s deficits and debt that would necessarily entail tough spending cuts ]
Bull. The Ryan budget increases spending just not as much as the Rats want.
Why did you take that out of context? IMHO, Ryan and Romney might be the only competent pubbies that can explain how rats expanded government's reach into the housing market, forcing banks into subprime loans, etc., with threats to prosecute about supposedly racist redlining, blocking mergers, etc. The gov't's policies were at the root of the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis. I don't mind having some pubbies that can explain the mess, that can explain Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers being no more and Fannie and Freddie going into receivership with the taxpayers on the hook.
(I forget which way the NY Daily News swings??)
From comment# 13:
"Although the NY Daily News has become a liberal rag, their editorial board and their owner, Mortimer Zuckerman, have written some extremely harsh essays about Obama."
Ryans’s Budget does NOT cut baseline spending, only the increase in rate of Federal Spending.
If the NYD News gets this upset with Ryan’s “ - - - and lower spending - - - “ part of his budget, just think upset they will be when the inevitable hammer does come down and the Market DEMANDS that baseline spending MUST be cut!
Both ways. They have more than their fair share of far-left columnists, but I guess the editorial staff is alive and well. They are thought of as left-wing but NYC GOP Chick used to say they have conservative creds on some issues.
Let's get the camel's nose under the tent first, and then see what happens.
HEEHEEHEE
I never judge a candidate by what he says or does. But I do judge him severely by who he surrounds himself with.
That's why I was never keen on 'W', he surrounded himself with his dad's old retreads.
Mittens knows we are really not liking his p***sy go-along-to-get-along policies. I'll withhold judgment till I see who he picks for AG and if that person is willing and able to put Holder, BeeHOe, Big Sis and friends in orange jump suits.
Hey, its what we have to work with here. Focus on the senate and house. If we surround Mittens with good conservatives, he won't have much wiggle room.
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