2012 is not about Obama; it’s a Referendum on the American Idea

Human Events ^ | 12/27/2011 | Jason Mattera

[neverdem]

Yes, Barack Obama brings added definition to the word disaster, as his presidency has overseen more people trapped below the poverty line than ever in modern history.

But is 2012 about defeating Obama only?

Paul Ryan doesn’t think so. The Wisconsin Republicans says that the eventual GOP nominee must make the 2012 election much broader in scope.

“[The election] is a referendum on the American idea, not on Barack Obama and his handling of the economy,” Ryan told HUMAN EVENTS. “It is, ‘Do you want to reclaim the founding principles that made us exceptional and great, an opportunity society with a circumscribed safety net? Or do you want the cradle-to-grave welfare state?’ ”

“It’s really a choice of two futures,” Ryan added. “We owe it to the country to let them choose what kind of country they want to be and what kind of people they want to be.”

Ryan says that if the Republican challenger makes the election about the conflicting vision for America, then upon victory there would be a clear mandate to plow forward with the kind of large, structural changes that are needed to keep us free and prosperous.

“We will be better stewards of the economy than he will be,” is an insufficient campaign platform, Ryan stressed. “This is the most important election in our lifetime, no matter what generation you come from.”

[driftless2]

Sorry, one third of all prospective voters are not set. That's the third both parties fight over. If either side can get a substantial percentage of that non-aligned third, they win most of the elections.

In 2008, six weeks before the election, McCain-Palin had a five percent lead over Obama-Biden in a number of polls. One week after the ensuing financial disaster, McCain-Palin was behind by five percentage points. And it stayed that way up to the election. The media had convinced many non-aligned voters that the Wall Street "banksters" and Republicans were responsible. Now we have to convince a sizable percentage of that non-aligned third that Obama is responsible for the economic disaster of the past three years.

[lentulusgracchus]

Because he is an alien ... never sat on his father's shoulders at a 4th of July parade ... never played pick-up baseball ...

This is an excellent point, and points out what a disservice the LSM whores did, presenting this luser as a standout -- not merely "good" -- candidate.

(PBS still runs his "We will chaaaaange the ccoooooourrse of hiissstoryyyyy" soundbite from Campaign '08 during their funding appeals here in Houston .... barf, spew, splork.)

Time was, American newsies would have diced finer than one of Julia Child's cole slaws any joker who came up the road of U.S. politics seeking high office, who didn't grow up "regular" with the rest of the kids. Freaks like Algore, who grew up in a DC hotel, or Obozo and his boho, porn-posing mommy and (probably KGB-illegal IMHO) slightly off-color, offbeat grandparents, would have been exposed and held up to examination like entomological specimens in a brilliant light of publicity.

But now the Media are complicit in the schemes of nasty little operators like Tommy Dasschole and hardface LaRouchie-clones like Axelrod and Plouffe, and they sell us one Manchurian candidate after another -- Clinton, the Gorebot, Skerry, and now Obozo.