From Examiner.com:
Paul Ryan, worse than Palin
True,
Mitt Romney’s new nominee for vice president possesses certain attributes that
Sarah Palin lacked, namely a wonky intellect and speaking voice that does not sound like nails on chalkboard. But
Paul Ryan may actually turn out to be a worse veep choice than Ms. Palin for several reasons.
1. Ryan further delays, and perhaps permanently scraps, Romney’s
move to the center. Eric Fehrnstrom, a top Romney aide, signaled that
the candidate intended to reinvent himself as a moderate after winning
the primary season. But we never got that promised
Etch-a-Sketch moment
and now, likely, never will. How is Romney going to take advantage of
his shape-shifting to attract independent voters if he continues to run
as a “severe conservative”? McCain didn’t need Palin to establish his
independent, mavericky
bona fides, but Ryan moves Romney in the wrong direction.
2. Palin’s nomination gave McCain a nice, but short-lived,
bounce in the polls – and enlivened McCain-Palin campaign rallies. By contrast, Ryan gave Romney
no national bounce in the polls and was greeted with a
tepid response from voters. Romney only got a
slight bounce
in Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin, a place Obama can electorally afford
to lose but will probably still win anyway. And since Ryan needs to be
kept away from seniors and more electorally significant places like
Florida (see Point No. 3, below), the newly minted team had to split up
when Romney headed south. Palin played everywhere, if that was your
flavor of crazy.
3. Ryan was Obama’s choice for VP, not Romney’s. Ryan’s nomination
confirms that even Romney thought he was losing an election being framed
as a referendum on President Obama. But in changing it to a
choice-election, Romney fell into Team Obama’s play-book with its
preferred – and
some would say hand-selected
– opponent in the form of Paul Ryan. Ryan is best known for his
deficit finagling in the form of the Republican “Roadmap,” which can be
easily summarized, and lampooned, as “right wing social engineering”
aimed at privatizing Social Security, voucherizing and ending Medicare
as we know it and block-granting and slashing Medicaid. When was the
last time one let one’s opponent select one’s running mate? At least no
one outside the McCain campaign can claim credit, or shame, for
choosing Palin.
4. Palin was the first female on a Republican ticket. Ryan is a
white, rich guy of the majority religion. Nothing to see here. Move
along. And even as the first Gen-X’er on a major party ticket, Ryan is
not likely to attract the youth vote when that youth discovers his
regressive views
on abortion (never, not even in cases or rape or incest), personhood
(from fertilization, criminalizing even some forms of birth control and
in vitro fertilization), gay rights (generally opposed) and immigration
(
against the DREAM Act).
5. Palin could see Russia from her doorstep. Ryan lacks even that foreign-policy experience.
6. And finally, did I mention Medicare? Well, let me mention it again. It’s not just that
Romney-Ryan
would decimate the social safety net that has developed over 80 years
since the New Deal. The real issue, consistent with the theme Obama has
already chosen for his reelection, is that the Republicans would make
all of those cuts NOT to balance the budget (which under Ryan’s plan
isn’t even
projected until 2060!),
but instead so they can give a big, fat tax break to the One Percent.
Given the state of the nascent recovery, this may not be a great year to
be running as an incumbent. But it’s an even worse year to be running
as Daddy Warbucks, or his current reincarnation, Romney Hood.
