Wow, this is a serious mis-step by the Romney campaign. The race used to be about the state of the economy. Now it’s about whether you want to end Medicare. The Ryan plan does little for cost control, while it yanks away support from millions of future senior, i.e. those 55 and under.
This decision essentially sinks the Republican’s campaign. I am honestly surprised at the decision.
ETA: What’s unclear to me is how the Rand/atheist issue will play out among the evangelicals. I’m guessing it won’t make a difference, but I’m not sure. Ryan is a huge fan of Ayn Rand: he gives Atlas Shrugged to his staffers with instructions to study it.
ETA2: OMG: A landslide for either candidate could imply a win of 30+ states.
As far as I can tell Congressman Ryan isn’t an Objectivist-he’s Catholic according to Wiki. There are plenty of religious people who admire Ayn Rand as much as non-Christians admire Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or non-Hindus admire Mahatma Ghandi.
adaher, try rereading the OP as quoted above. There are some of us interested in discussing the questions asked rather than watch you derail another thread. Of the 19 posts, 6 are yours and none are on topic.
SO…
I suspect this could throw Florida back to Obama. I had pretty much written it off as being likely to go to Romney, but the threat of being able to play up the Medicare angle probably has David Axelrod jumping up and down with glee.
I have no idea how popular Ryan is in Wisconsin but if the Romney “strategists” viewed this as a way to put the upper Midwest in play it strikes me as a dumb trade-off. Minnesota + Wisconsin + Iowa is still a net loss of 3 EV and I doubt Romney/Ryan will carry all three states.
I suppose Ryan is more charismatic than Romney, so maybe that counts for something. Frankly though, I happen to have house plants with more personality than Romney and none of them got vetted.
If Ryan’s Medicare plans are as toxic as they could be, anything is possible. I know we’ve gotten used to close elections, but it wasn’t THAT long ago that Ronald Reagan won 49 states. It can happen today given the right circumstances.
We already invest a ton in education and results are not improving much. No one anywhere in the world knows how to grow an economy, which is why you can’t count on growth. You have to deal with the budget picture as it is. if things end up better than expected, great, but the only responsible course is to figure out how to cut at least $4 trillion in spending in 10 years.
Cutting defense should definitely be part of that solution, but entitlements have to be cut as well. Medicare has historically grown at an 8% rate per year. We could just eliminate the entire rest of the federal budget and only do Medicare and we’d still end up in a financial crisis in our lifetimes simply due to Medicare growth.
In regards to FLorida, why would Ryan’s proposed Medicare cuts enrage florida’s seniors more than the actual, real Medicare Advantage cuts due in October?
That’s still 25% of seniors affected by real cuts, as opposed to 0% affected by cuts which haven’t happened and won’t happen for those currently over 55.
Early voting is a fairly recent phenomenon and not universal among the states or other democracies. It’s kinda weird to claim that not having it disenfranchises people, that it’s somehow become essential for democracy.
What’s kind of weird is your knee-jerk defense of obviously partisan gamesmanship. To me, it’s obvious that Romney’s choice of Ryan (Slate says it’s going to be announced this morning at 9 AM) is going to kill him in Florida but for the elimination of many Democratic voters there. With enough early voters, voters turned away for lack of proper ID, etc. Romney wouldn’t stand a chance in Florida.