Romney picks Paul Ryan as his running mate

[Vincent Vega]

NORFOLK, Va. – Mitt Romney unveiled Saturday morning Representative Paul Ryan as his choice for running mate, a bold move that comes at the end of an intense selection process and is likely to shake up a presidential race out of the summer doldrums.

Romney sent out the announcement, which began to leak early this morning, through a smart-phone application, alerting supporters simply: “Mitt’s Choice for VP is Paul Ryan.”

Romney and Ryan are slated to appear together on the waterfront here, with the USS Wisconsin serving as the backdrop. Lines formed in the early hours of the morning, with supporters snaking around the Nauticus Museum where the announcement was scheduled to take place.

Romney’s campaign also sent out a press release branding Romney and Ryan as “America’s Comeback Team” and providing a brief biography of Ryan, who has been a prominent seven-term congressman but is also relatively untested on the national stage.

Raise Your Voice

Click to contact candidates or elected officials about this issue. The Romney campaign noted Ryan’s role spearheading a proposed reform of the tax code, but focused on his personal background. It noted that he proposed to his wife, Janna Little, at one of his favorite fishing spots in Wisconsin; that they live in Janesville, Wisc., with their three children and attend a Catholic Church; and that Ryan is both “an avid outdoorsman” and a member of his local archery association, the Janesville Bowmen.

It also highlights his youth. Ryan – who at 42 is the same age as Romney’s oldest son, Tagg – was elected to Congress at 28 and offers a contrast in age to Romney, who is 65.

Ryan’s selection is bound to animate a conservative base that has largely been skeptical of Romney, even as he has repeatedly sought to make inroads. As the architect of the Republican budget blueprint that cuts spending and recasts how Medicare and Medicaid are delivered, Ryan has developed a reputation as a policy wonk and a rising star within his party.

Romney’s advisers have been trying to cast his campaign as more substantive on policy, while suggesting that President Obama is more concerned with levying personal attacks.

But just as Ryan will excite Republicans, he is also likely to provide ample ammunition for Democrats, who have pilloried his policies and said they would lead to diminished services for the elderly, who make up a crucial voting bloc.

Romney and Ryan have developed a kinship over the course of the campaign. Earlier this year, they campaign together and shared burgers at a fast food restaurant in Wisconsin. Ryan also had a role in playing an April Fool’s joke on Romney – in which Romney showed up to an empty ballroom thinking it was a full crowd -- illustrating the type of humor Romney shares.

Ryan, who is the chairman of the House Budget Committee, endorsed Romney before Wisconsin’s Republican primary in late March. He comes from a state that leans Democrat but could come into play in November, with its 10 electoral votes. The state has been ground zero for a showdown between unions of public workers and governors who seek to curtail their collective bargaining rights.

Ryan was once considered a long shot for the vice presidential nomination, largely because of his youth and his espousing of policies that are controversial in some circles.

But in recent days, focus on Ryan intensified, with conservatives hoping he would pick someone that could stoke their base, shake up the race, and put Romney back on his footing after a rough month where he fell in the polls.

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday strongly urged Romney to pick the seven-term congressman.

“The case for Mr. Ryan is that he best exemplifies the nature and stakes of this election,” the paper wrote. “More than any other politician, the House budget chairman has defined those stakes well as a generational choice about the role of government and whether America will once again become a growth economy or sink into interest-group dominated decline.”

Romney is making the announcement at the start of a four-day bus tour. After appearing together Saturday morning, Romney has several other events in Virginia before traveling to North Carolina on Sunday. He will be in Florida on Monday and Ohio on Tuesday.

Announcing his pick now will allow him and Ryan to immediately begin campaigning together and drumming up energy and support in crucial states.

http://www.boston.com/politicalintelligence/2012/08/11/mitt-romney-chooses-paul-ryan-running-mate/SYa5KjwAikhF92jR2MMmeI/story.html

A bit about Paul Ryan.....

Paul Ryan Is Not a Vice President. Paul Ryan Is a Fake.

By Charles P. Pierce

at 5:15PM

One day, some years from now, I'm going to figure out how Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin, managed to fool so many people for so long. He's a garden-variety supply-side faker. His alleged economic "wonkery" consists of a B.A. in economics from Miami of Ohio — which he would not have been able to achieve without my generosity in helping him out with the Social Security survivor's benefits that got him through high school after his father kicked. (You're welcome, zombie-eyed granny-starver. Think nothing of it. Really.) Whereupon he went to work in Washington for a variety of conservative congresscritters and think-tanks, thinking unremarkable thoughts for fairly unremarkable people. Once in Congress, however, he has been transformed into an intellectual giant despite the fact that, every time he comes up with another "budget," actual economists get a look at it and determine, yet again, that between "What We Should Do" and "Great Things That Will Happen When We Do" is a wilderness of dreamy nonsense, wishful thinking, and an asterisk the size of Lake Huron. At which point, Republicans who'd like to have careers in five years take to hiding behind the drapes when he comes down the hall. Then, a few months later, he's at it again. And even some putatively liberal commentators shrug and tell themselves that, at least, Paul Ryan is a Serious Person. He gets credit for sincerely wanting to "reform" entitlements, when his entire career makes it quite plain that he doesn't believe in the concept of entitlements, let alone the ones we actually have. He gets a pass on obvious mendacity that none of us would buy from, say, Herman Cain. (In a way, it's not dissimilar to all those valentines to the mighty intellect of Newt Gingrich that we read back in the early 1990's, until everybody figured out that Newt's default position on almost everything was being a thoroughgoing creep.) Outside of the very real possibility that it's all being done to give Paul Krugman a stroke, I don't get it.

(UPDATE, ON THE VP PICK: Paul Ryan, Murderer of Opportunity, Political Coward, Candidate for Vice President of the United States)

This all comes up again because, apparently, there's a big push on from his extreme starboard side to get Willard Romney to sign the ZEGS on as second mate aboard the good ship Malaprop. The most vivid evidence of what's going on came from the nervous hospital that is the Wall Street Journal's editorial page. It begins with now customary draping of the toga across the shoulders of the Pericles from Janesville....

Too risky, goes the Beltway chorus. His selection would make Medicare and the House budget the issue, not the economy. The 42-year-old is too young, too wonky, too, you know, serious. Beneath it all you can hear the murmurs of the ultimate Washington insult-that Mr. Ryan is too dangerous because he thinks politics is about things that matter. That dude really believes in something, and we certainly can't have that.

First of all, "dude"? When did the WSJ editorial board become such hepcats? Bob Bartley is rotating at 78 R.P.M. And Ryan isn't dangerous because he believes in stuff. He's dangerous because he believes in stuff that will hurt millions of people who never did anything to him

Against the advice of every Beltway bedwetter, he has put entitlement reform at the center of the public agenda-before it becomes a crisis that requires savage cuts. And he has done so as part of a larger vision that stresses tax reform for faster growth, spending restraint to prevent a Greek-like budget fate, and a Jack Kemp-like belief in opportunity for all. He represents the GOP's new generation of reformers that includes such Governors as Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and New Jersey's Chris Christie.

Oh, balls. His strategy is to do away with entitlements by letting them die on the vine. The second sentence is, of course, belied by eight years of Reagan, four years of Daddy Bush, and eight years of C-Plus Augustus. It isn't going to work any better just because Paul Ryan proposes it. And, by all means, lump him in with the Bayou Demon Catcher and the Jersey Barrier. I'm sure he's thrilled.

As important, Mr. Ryan can make his case in a reasonable and unthreatening way. He doesn't get mad, or at least he doesn't show it. Like Reagan, he has a basic cheerfulness and Midwestern equanimity.

Okay, here's where you really lose me. I knew Jack Kemp. I watched Ronald Reagan. You could say anything about Jack Kemp and he'd come up smiling. (I mean, once you've been chased out of the pocket by Buck Buchanan, what do you care about snarky commenters?) Reagan was similarly untouchable, although entirely more oblivious, especially by his second term. But Ryan? He's a bit of a whiner. Back in April, he fell splendidly back onto the fainting couch on the subject of the president's tewwible, awful betwayal of what Paul Ryan's idea of government is. He also confused Barack Obama with George W. Bush, which is unfortunate.

I seem to remember him saying that he was going to be a uniter, not a divider. Frankly this is one and the worst of his broken promises. We do not need a campaigner-in-chief, we need a commander-in-chief. We we need a leader that America deserves. The presidency is bigger than this. He was supposed to be bigger than this. We need solutions, not excuses. We need a president who takes the lead in not one that spreads the blame. We need someone who appeals to our dreams and aspirations, not to our fears and anxieties. We as Americans deserved to choose what kind of country we want and what kind of people we want to be.

We've pretty much done that, Paul, and 58 percent of us decided that we didn't want a country in which zombie-eyed granny-starving becomes the norm. His deep and abiding teenage crush on Ayn Rand couldn't outlast a barrage of public criticism from nuns. He cut and ran on the political philosophy he'd heretofore said was formative. And when the president really let go a right hand, Ryan went meeping back to his happy place.

"History will not be kind to a president who, when it came time to confront our generation's defining challenge, chose to duck and run," Ryan said. "The president refuses to take responsibility for the economy and refuses to offer a credible plan to address the most predictable economic crisis in our history."

This is a guy in love with his own concocted genius. Pick him if you want, Willard. I don't think he's got the chin for it.

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/paul-ryan-vice-president-2012-11518368#ixzz23FRmrsNP

[TeeJay410]

...pick a candidate of which the Dems already have attacks lined up for? Mitt Romney is going all in on the conservative vote it looks like. Good luck getting moderates with Romney.

Romney might be the worst presidential candidate since Bob Dole. Everything democrats like to harp on republicans for (elitist, out of touch) is legitimate with this guy. No spinning needed, just state facts. Plus the guy is just so awkward. Regardless of whether it should be or not, this election may be decided upon who voters like more. That's a clear choice.

[Dan H.]

ok

[Vincent Vega]

...pick a candidate of which the Dems already have attacks lined up for? Mitt Romney is going all in on the conservative vote it looks like. Good luck getting moderates with Romney.

Romney might be the worst presidential candidate since Bob Dole. Everything democrats like to harp on republicans for (elitist, out of touch) is legitimate with this guy. No spinning needed, just state facts. Plus the guy is just so awkward. Regardless of whether it should be or not, this election may be decided upon who voters like more. That's a clear choice.

Elections have been decided on who the voters like more since the first televised Nixon/Kennedy debates in 1960. It's been a popularity/personality contest ever since.

[Georgy Zhukov]

This is going to be interesting.

[Guest Len B'stard]

Elections have been decided on who the voters like more since the first televised Nixon/Kennedy debates in 1960. It's been a popularity/personality contest ever since.

Thats all they've ever been. It's whether or not that popularity is based on positive policy or not, which it generally is see cuz, as i'm sure you know, if you're a cunt that tends to make you unpopular.

It's all a load of shit anyway, one shitbag politician is as good as another, they're just crooks.

Edited August 11, 2012 by sugaraylen

[Tom1447]

So romney picks a guy who is in the back pockets of the big donors, really shocking

[Georgy Zhukov]

Elections have been decided on who the voters like more since the first televised Nixon/Kennedy debates in 1960. It's been a popularity/personality contest ever since.

Thats all they've ever been. It's whether or not that popularity is based on positive policy or not, which it generally is see cuz, as i'm sure you know, if you're a cunt that tends to make you unpopular.

It's all a load of shit anyway, one shitbag politician is as good as another, they're just crooks.

Lincoln won because he grew a beard. Kennedy won because he looked better on TV and he had a southern man as a running mate. Won by a cunt hair.

[Vincent Vega]

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/08/11/677171/12-things-you-should-know-about-vice-presidential-candidate-paul-ryan/?mobile=nc

12 Things You Should Know About Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan

By Igor Volsky on Aug 11, 2012 at 8:27 am

Mitt Romney has picked as his running mate 42 year-old Republican Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), the architect of the GOP budget, which the New York Times has described as “the most extreme budget plan passed by a house of Congress in modern times.” Below are 12 things you should know about Ryan and his policies:

1. Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand. Ryan heaped praise on Ayn Rand, a 20th-century libertarian novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that selfishness is “virtue.” Rand described altruism as “evil,” condemned Christianity for advocating compassion for the poor, viewed the feminist movement as “phony,” and called Arabs “almost totally primitive savages. Though he publicly rejected “her philosophy” in 2012, Ryan had professed himself a strong devotee. “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” he said at a D.C. gathering honoring the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.” “I give out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well… I try to make my interns read it.”

2. Ryan wants to raises taxes on the middle class, cuts them for millionaires. Paul Ryan’s infamous budget — which Romney embraced — replaces “the current tax structure with two brackets — 25 percent and 10 percent — and cut the top rate from 35 percent.” Federal tax collections would fall “by about $4.5 trillion over the next decade” as a result and to avoid increasing the national debt, the budget proposes massive cuts in social programs and “special-interest loopholes and tax shelters that litter the code.” But 62 percent of the savings would come from programs that benefit the lower- and middle-classes, who would also experience a tax increase. That’s because while Ryan “would extend the Bush tax cuts, which are due to expire at the end of this year, he would not extend President Obama’s tax cuts for those with the lowest incomes, which will expire at the same time.” Households “earning more than $1 million a year, meanwhile, could see a net tax cut of about $300,000 annually.”

3. Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system. Ryan’s latest budget transforms the existing version of Medicare, in which government provides seniors with a guaranteed benefit, into a “premium support” system. All future retirees would receive a government contribution to purchase insurance from an exchange of private plans or traditional fee-for-service Medicare. But since the premium support voucher does not keep up with increasing health care costs, the Congressional Budget Offices estimates that new beneficiaries could pay up to $1,200 more by 2030 and more than $5,900 more by 2050. A recent study also found that had the plan been implemented in 2009, 24 million beneficiares enrolled in the program would have paid higher premiums to maintain their choice of plan and doctors. Ryan would also raise Medicare’s age of eligibility to 67.

4. Ryan thinks Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.” In September of 2011, Ryan agreed with Rick Perry’s characterization of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” and since 2005 has advocated for privatizing the retirement benefit and investing it in stocks and bonds. Conservatives claim that this would “outperform the current formula based on wages earned and overall wage appreciation,” but the economic crisis of 2008 should serve as a wake-up call for policymakers who seek to hinge Americans’ retirement on the stock market. In fact, “a person with a private Social Security account similar to what President George W. Bush proposed in 2005″ would have lost much of their retirement savings.

5. Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years. Ryan’s budget calls for massive reductions in government spending. He has proposed cutting discretionary programs by about $120 billion over the next two years and mandatory programs by $284 billion, which, the Economic Policy Institute estimates, would suck demand out of the economy and “reduce employment by 1.3 million jobs in fiscal 2013 and 2.8 million jobs in fiscal 2014, relative to current budget policies.”

6. Ryan wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1 million students. Ryan’s budget claims both that rising financial aid is driving college tuition costs upward, and that Pell Grants, which help cover tuition costs for low-income Americans, don’t go to the “truly needy.” So he cuts the Pell Grant program by $200 billion, which could “ultimately knock more than one million students off” the program over the next 10 years.

7. Ryan supports $40 billion in subsides for big oil. In 2011, Ryan joined all House Republicans and 13 Democrats in his vote to keep Big Oil tax loopholes as part of the FY 2011 spending bill. His budget would retain a decade’s worth of oil tax breaks worth $40 billion, while cutting “billions of dollars from investments to develop alternative fuels and clean energy technologies that would serve as substitutes for oil.” For instance, it “calls for a $3 billion cut in energy programs in FY 2013 alone” and would spend only $150 million over five years — or 20 percent of what was invested in 2012 — on energy programs.

8. Ryan has ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies . Ryan “and his wife, Janna, own stakes in four family companies that lease land in Texas and Oklahoma to the very energy companies that benefit from the tax subsidies in Ryan’s budget plan,” the Daily Beast reported in June of 2011. “Ryan’s father-in-law, Daniel Little, who runs the companies, told Newsweek and The Daily Beast that the family companies are currently leasing the land for mining and drilling to energy giants such as Chesapeake Energy, Devon, and XTO Energy, a recently acquired subsidiary of ExxonMobil.”

9. Ryan claimed Romneycare has led to “rationing and benefit cuts.” “I’m not a fan of [Romney's health care reform] system,” Ryan told C-SPAN in 2010. He argued that government is rationing care in the state and claimed that people are “seeing the system bursting by the seams, they’re seeing premium increases, rationing and benefit cuts.” He called the system “a fatal conceit” and “unsustainable.”

10. Ryan believes that Romneycare is “not that dissimilar to Obamacare.” Though Romney has gone to great lengths to distinguish his Massachusetts health care law from Obamacare, Romney doesn’t see the difference. “It’s not that dissimilar to Obamacare, and you probably know I’m not a big fan of Obamacare,” Ryan said at a breakfast meeting sponsored by the American Spectator in March of 2011. “I just don’t think the mandates work … all the regulation they’ve put on it…I think it’s beginning to death spiral. They’re beginning to have to look at rationing decisions.”

11. Ryan accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget. In March, Ryan couldn’t believe that Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey supports Obama’s Pentagon budget, which incorporates $487 billion in cuts over 10 years. “We don’t think the generals are giving us their true advice,” Ryan said at a policy summit hosted by the National Journal. “We don’t think the generals believe that their budget is really the right budget.” He later apologized for the implication.

12. Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure. Ryan joined 62 other Republicans in co-sponsoring the Sanctity of Human Life Act, which declares that a fertilized egg “shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood.” This would outlaw abortion, some forms of contraception and invitro fertilization.

Edited August 11, 2012 by Vincent Vega

[Dazey]

Well at least she was sensible enough to condemn Christianity.

[sweetness]

lol, liberal media losing their fucking minds over this. HE'S PURE EVIL!!!

[TeeJay410]

Well at least she was sensible enough to condemn Christianity.

No, Ayn Rand is (though thats the only sensible thing about that person). I'm sure whenever someone asks about his faith he pulls his cross necklace from under his shirt and says the lord's prayer.

Edited August 11, 2012 by TeeJay410

[Vincent Vega]

The dude has creepy eyes:

[Georgy Zhukov]

Two clean cut white guys. The image alone can turn off voters.

It won't matter who gets elected. The President doesn't have all the power. The power is shared. The President has the power of veto and is the commander and chief, but there's 535 other people running, along with Supreme Court, administrators and state governments. The President is the fall guy.

[sweetness]

The dude has creepy eyes:

I bet he drinks blood and sleeps in a coffin too

[deepfreeze]

Dear Miser,

[Mastodonny]

This is the first time Romney has ever hired an American.

[Dazey]

This is the first time Romney has ever hired an American.

[Guest Len B'stard]

They should make em fuckin' fight. Stick em in the ring, 12 three minute rounds, fuckin' it'd save the lives of the fuckin' working classes they send out to do their bidding, fuckin' stick the presidents in the ring, that way you'd get more fuckin' interesting presidents, see i wouldn't mind voting for President Mike Tyson...shit, even Prime Minister Frank Bruno is better than David fuckin' Cameron Let em fuckin' bash each other about, PPV, don't matter if they're thick, everyone knows their aides and adivisors are the ones that sort policy and all that out anyway, they're just a bunch of patsys with a script.

[Tater Totts]

They should make em fuckin' fight. Stick em in the ring, 12 three minute rounds, fuckin' it'd save the lives of the fuckin' working classes they send out to do their bidding, fuckin' stick the presidents in the ring, that way you'd get more fuckin' interesting presidents, see i wouldn't mind voting for President Mike Tyson...shit, even Prime Minister Frank Bruno is better than David fuckin' Cameron Let em fuckin' bash each other about, PPV, don't matter if they're thick, everyone knows their aides and adivisors are the ones that sort policy and all that out anyway, they're just a bunch of patsys with a script.

Prime Minister Bruno with his top hat and monocle outside of number 10 would be amazing.

[Dazey]

They should make em fuckin' fight. Stick em in the ring, 12 three minute rounds, fuckin' it'd save the lives of the fuckin' working classes they send out to do their bidding, fuckin' stick the presidents in the ring, that way you'd get more fuckin' interesting presidents, see i wouldn't mind voting for President Mike Tyson...shit, even Prime Minister Frank Bruno is better than David fuckin' Cameron Let em fuckin' bash each other about, PPV, don't matter if they're thick, everyone knows their aides and adivisors are the ones that sort policy and all that out anyway, they're just a bunch of patsys with a script.

Prime Minister Bruno with his top hat and monocle outside of number 10 would be amazing.

I'd rather see the other Bruno.

[Guest Len B'stard]

They should make em fuckin' fight. Stick em in the ring, 12 three minute rounds, fuckin' it'd save the lives of the fuckin' working classes they send out to do their bidding, fuckin' stick the presidents in the ring, that way you'd get more fuckin' interesting presidents, see i wouldn't mind voting for President Mike Tyson...shit, even Prime Minister Frank Bruno is better than David fuckin' Cameron Let em fuckin' bash each other about, PPV, don't matter if they're thick, everyone knows their aides and adivisors are the ones that sort policy and all that out anyway, they're just a bunch of patsys with a script.

Prime Minister Bruno with his top hat and monocle outside of number 10 would be amazing.

You're thinking Eubank aren't you, young man?

[Tater Totts]

They should make em fuckin' fight. Stick em in the ring, 12 three minute rounds, fuckin' it'd save the lives of the fuckin' working classes they send out to do their bidding, fuckin' stick the presidents in the ring, that way you'd get more fuckin' interesting presidents, see i wouldn't mind voting for President Mike Tyson...shit, even Prime Minister Frank Bruno is better than David fuckin' Cameron Let em fuckin' bash each other about, PPV, don't matter if they're thick, everyone knows their aides and adivisors are the ones that sort policy and all that out anyway, they're just a bunch of patsys with a script.

Prime Minister Bruno with his top hat and monocle outside of number 10 would be amazing.

You're thinking Eubank aren't you, young man?

FUCK! Yeah my bad, still. Bruno's laugh as PM would be great.

[downzy]

This appears to me as an admission by the Romney campaign that they can't win over the moderate vote. What they're hoping for, I suspect, is a candidate that can help motivate the base of the party to vote. Elections are often won by who can best motivate their own party members to vote. 85% of the electorate can be determined before the election based purely on party affiliation. While the other 15% is important, it's not crucial, if one is able to get more of your own party to show up to the polls than the other guy. Look at 2004. More Republicans came out to vote due to wedge issues than Democrats, who only cared about tossing George W. Bush. The Independent vote was pretty much split.

Picking a guy like Paul Ryan isn't as offensive as someone like Sarah Palin, hence Romney isn't likely to turn off as many independents as McCain did picking Palin. But he'll likely get a boost from the party base.

Remember, elections are about who actually votes, not polls that ask "likely voters" who they'll vote for. A likely voter isn't a guaranteed voter. Someone can love Obama all day long, but if they don't vote it doesn't matter.

Having said all that, I think this election has been over since the Republicans picked Romney as their candidate. He's handcuffed in any conversation over healthcare, is impotent in terms of message (other than "less taxes, less regulation, less government" which only appeals to the hard right), and is woeful as an actual candidate (stiff, gaff-prone, uncharismatic, ill-prepared in not having his financial situation sorted well before launching his campaign, and out of touch).

The irony of this election is awesome. We see one candidate who came from nothing, who truly made to to where he is through his own intelligence, hard work, and perseverance (not discounting, of course, any assistance he may have received from the government in terms of school financing), who is arguing for a greater sense of community and share sacrifice. The other candidate, born into political royalty, kissed into the right social and economic circles through his family connections, who argues for individualism and social-Darwinism. While both candidates are likely hard working, smart individuals, it would be difficult to argue that Obama is where he is because he was born into the right family. You can't make the same case for Romney. No doubt Romney has done well for himself, but Obama strikes me as the embodiment of the American dream of individual determinism. Yet it's Romney who wishes to cut social ties between Americans. Oh the irony.

Edited August 11, 2012 by downzy

[dalsh327]

They found a young Republican who drove a weenie truck as a summer job, and the only thing the Republican party has are pointing out Obama's flaws and pumping way too much money into campaign ads.

Big mistake on Romney's part is bragging about his business record, esp. at a time where money people are seen as evil. The only hope Romney has is based on hate and frustration, but it's one that's partly caused by his cronies. Not saying Obama's cronies are innocent. Far from it.

I think Ryan v Biden in the debates will favor Ryan.

Would you vote for a guy because he knows all the songs on Appetite (he did graduate high school in 1988, and would be weird if he didn't), and is a P90X fitness freak.

Another thing you're going to see Obama's campaign do, is bring up Ryan's dad dying of a heart attack at 55. The guy prob, has a clean bill of health, but they're going to make it seem like he's as healthy as McCain and Cheney.