Posted on 05/25/2011 6:22:02 PM PDT by advance_copy
Tuesday’s special election win by Democrat Kathy Hochul was the result of Democratic scare tactics, and not actually a referendum on the reality of his Medicare plan, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said in his first comments after the polls closed in Western New York.
“I saw the ads,” Ryan said. “I saw burning people’s Medicare cards. If you can scare seniors into thinking that their current benefits are being affected, that’s going to have an effect. And that is exactly what took place here. So yes, yes, it’s demagoguery, it’s scaring seniors.”
Ryan also chalked up Hochul’s win to the candidacy of Jack Davis, a self-funded candidate who drew more votes than the margin of victory.
“When a Democrat runs as a third party, tea party candidate and spends a couple million dollars, it’s going to have an effect,” Ryan said Wednesday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Not only was there a phony "tea party" spoiler, but this is also the district where the former Republican incumbent had to resign in disgrace as a result of a infidelity scandal involving shirtless picture and a Craigslist ad.
Does anybody remember Mark Foley? His district in Florida went Democratic in 2006, and was returned to the GOP upon the 2008 election. Republican Tom Rooney represents the Florida 16th in Congress today.
The NY-26 and the FL-16 scandals had similar impact. The Democrats took both districts, and NY-26 was NOT a rejection of the Ryan plan.
If this election was ;a referendum on Ryan's budget or what he proposes for Medicare in the future, the Democrat idea didn't draw a majority.
The liberals on MSNBC said the election was a referendum on Paul Ryan’s budget and the future of Medicare. Rachel Maddow said her cross tabs on the exit polls showed this.
Would the liberals on MSNBC mislead us? They were hailing the Dem. victory as the people standing up to the Republicans who want to terminate Medicare. Or such such pablum.
A part of me can understand people being disgusted with the shirtless wonder and sending an election message.
Ryan touched the third rail. It was foolish. He’s damaged goods and he’s finished.
Last November, voters gave the Congress to the GOP because the GOP campaigned on restoring fiscal sanity to D.C., including reforming entitlements.
The opposite of what you wrote is true. If the GOP did not tackle the third rail as they pledged to do, they would have been finished.
NY-26 is a weird district. Its not anything.
Ryan was foolish from a pure political point of view, that is winning elections. He showed guts in trying to solve a giant train wreck that is coming down the tracks. The problem is us, the people. I mean the people in the broad sense. Americans are addicted to entitlements, their own. One poll showed that 58% of those who say they support the Tea Party do not want Medicaire touched. People will support small government until their own handouts are on the table. Small government means cutting the other guys freebies. That is the sad truth. The people support the idea of small government, not the reality of it.
The voters only gave the GOP half the Congress. The GOP should have remained an opposition party, not a governing one. By acting as a governing party they can only write checks with their mouths that their asses cant cash. The smart move would have been to trump the point that they are not in charge, and continue attacking the Lefties. Let them make the proposals and then savage them. Paul Ryan’s mistake is to believe that the public is rational, they are not.
Anyone who attempts to reform/change the system will be defeated and the only solution is to inflate everything to a complete and total collapse.
By design or otherwise....that will be the eventual outcome.
Just prepare your butt now.
Since running a fake "Tea Party" candidate worked here, expect them to pop up nationwide.
It's interesting to me that sex scandals flipped districts while in my own area, the district of the felonious "Duke" Cunningham stayed Republican in the wake of his corruption scandal. Democrats battled hard to flip that one.
I don't think this (D) win in NY-26 means it'll be so 2012.
Um, I don't think so. Conservatives are thrilled that someone, FINALLY, is actually doing something to rein in the spending. Sure the MSM will demagogue the issue, and there will be much more heat than light on the issue, but with the economy the way it is right now, I believe many Americans will begin to understand that Ryan's plan, or something like it, is necessary to reduce government spending.
Look at the damage Obama has done to this nation in just 2 years. Who knows how much further we'd be down the tubes if he had another 2 years of unchecked power.
Voters put the GOP in charge of Congress to lead, not to throw bombs from the sidelines.
I swear I think FR has bi-polar disorder. There is the incessant droning: "The GOP has no guts. The GOP has no spine, they're a bunch of pantywaists, yada, yada, yada". Then when someone like Ryan sticks his neck out, he gets it cut off.
LOL! Yeah, and it seems there is almost as much knee-jerking going on at FR, sometimes, as there is on places like the Huff Post or DU
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