And the winner is... Paul Ryan

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Anyone surprised Romney picked Paul Ryan as a running mate? I have to imagine Romney is going for the far right wing vote, as those voters have always been suspicious of Romney (healthcare, gay rights, pro-choice in his previous life as Massachusetts governor). But I have to think this choice could scare away people who feel threatened by the Ryan plan - - you know; those of us who have to worry about our futures when illness and old age incapacitate us.
Discuss, please...

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Ryan is definitely a fire breather and meant to appeal to the ugliest parts of the GOP base.

I really don’t get it…

I guess Romney’s campaign must believe that Obama has lost enough moderate/swing voters that they can go “full batshitcrazy tea party right.”

Personally, I think they screwed up.

Some people would complain no matter who he picked.

I thought Ryan was a bit of a darling right now. His plan(s) might be kind of crazy but at least he has some, and probably will be a lot more energizing than the milquetoast candidate Romney seems to be.
I won't be voting for them, but suddenly Romney looks like more of a threat. Plus they're both pretty, young-ish white guys versus Joe "foot-in-mouth disease" Biden and the black guy who couldn't fix the economy in under 4 years.

I think it might have been a pretty good strategic choice. As a nation, we're already deeply polarized and that's not going to change before the election. Romney and the RNC are capitalizing on that.

Honestly, I don't know what Romney is thinking. This is going to cost him dearly in the state of Florida, where Medicare and Medicaid are pretty much sacred cows. This may energize the right-wing base, but it's doing just as much for the Democrats, who are practically salivating over the opportunity to paint Romney/Ryan as the "haves and have-mores" ticket.

I take it Romney saw Ryan's youth, charisma, and the nearly universal support of the Ryan budget plan among the right fringe as assets to his campaign. That may be, but I don't see how that sort of ticket is going to play favorably to women, minorities, students, independents, or moderates, all of whom may now potentially be scared off by the hyper-conservative rhetoric. It's like the Republicans completely forgot how disastrous Sarah Palin was for the party four years ago. Charisma and ideology aren't enough to attract a majority of the electorate. Perhaps that's why the Republican-held states are fighting dirty with these absurd voter ID laws-- they know they can't win in a fair fight this year.



First of all, to call Mitt Romney young-ish is a bit of a stretch. Romney is 65 years old. To put that in perspective, Biden is only 4 years older than him. And before you levy that "foot-in-mouth" accusation at Biden, I would remind you about Mr. "I like being able to fire people" Romney.

If we're arguing about the economy, I think it's fair to characterize Obama as having made mistakes. That, however, is a far cry from the sort of institutionalized cronyism and tax loopholes for the top %1 which would most assuredly occur under a Romney administration. Think things are bad now? They can be much worse, very easily.

Really? I didn't realize he was that old. Like I said, I have no intention of voting for him so I guess I haven't been paying enough attention. The thing about Biden's foot-in-mouth is that I lived in Philly for almost 10 years (which is right next door to Delaware) and he naturally got a lot of local news coverage there. I remember his bid for the presidency tanking because he called Obama "articulate and clean". Honestly I think he's great and I'm behind the whole ticket 100%, but Biden is a gaff machine. No sense arguing otherwise.

Gotta wonder how many guys said no before he got to Ryan... Maybe he'll help shore up Romney's conservative credentials, but Ryan certainly won't help him reach out beyond traditional Republican voters, and IMHO that's what he'd have needed to do in order to win.

I was very surprised by Mr. Ryan but in a good way. I was hopping for Bobby Jindal but that is only because I didn't think of Mr. Ryan. I believe that Mr.Ryan is a very proactive person; a "go-getter" if you will. I agree with his solution to Medicare and his no non- sense approach to taxation; take out all of the deductions and go with a flat tax. I believe that he could become the next Regan; If you are a Vice President at 28 years old you have a pretty promising career ahead of you.

If Ryan has his way, the elderly will be given a lump annual sum that would pay for three months of care, then for the rest of the year, they'd be on their own - and that doesn't even cover the disabled. That doesn't make Ryan sound particularity appealing to me.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Cheney fully endorsed Ryan....nuff said

He's 40, but that still is still young for a potential vice-president.

Romney is going to have problems debating Obama, on many issues that Romney has flip-flopped on throughout his career.

However, Ryan has been no friend of Democrats, so he may actually inspire more Democrats to come out to vote, based on some of his extreme views of the past, regarding social security and medicare.

It has already been reported that Romney will not support Ryan's plans in this election cycle, and will report a unique plan of his own as Ryan's controversial viewpoints are already well known and would spell almost certain defeat, if Romney were to adopt Ryan's plans; at least in the current election cycle. Ryan's past plans to decimate a good portion of the social security/medicare system will certainly be a continuing source of attack for Obama/Biden throughout the rest of the campaign to inspire democrats to come out and vote, in November.

Overall, it appears that Ryan was chosen because Romney is not "Republican" enough to inspire the core of that party. The tea party element. The enemy of Romney within his own party, since the beginning of his attempt for the nomination. The tea party, may yet inspire another 4 years of Obama, in part, because of the division it continues to create in the Republican party in an extreme element that some would like to distance themselves from, but cannot avoid because of the influence it has gained .

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/tea-party-hopes-to-gain-larger-stage-in-election-with-romneys-pick/

BEWARE ! Romney/Ryan campaigners will soon be handing out arm bands. ("RR for America", which then also references Ronald Reagan)

See any Similarities?

I actually see more resemblance between Ryan and Eddy's wolfman doll.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

All in the Family.

Apparently he now has a more watered down "bi-partisan" version that still includes a public option which claims to be identical to the current Medicare program while offering a choice of "more competitive" private options as well. I really doubt private competition will lower bureaucratic overhead as contrary to popular understanding, most of the excess cost in our healthcare system isn't the bureaucratic overhead or even insurance company profits. It's also stupid to try and treat the problem of rising Medicare costs as something separate from rising costs in the healthcare system as a whole. It's all part of the same basic pot.

The biggest problem with the system is lack of preventative care and market forces that encourage treatment seeking and procedures that aren't necessarily based on efficacy. The market mooches off the sick in order to make money rather than acting to prevent people from getting sick in the first place (since the latter would obviously cut into their profits). The other problem is the government/private regulatory interfacing of insurance is more bureaucratically expensive than just having a single payer or public option and keeping the public and private insurance as separate independent tiers the way most other countries do.