You know the drill, Romney goes up a few points over the next week, or at least Dick Morris says he did. Joe Scar and Peggy Noonan and Bobo and Evan Thomas and the rest shoot their wad.
But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again about the American public: they don’t know c-razy but they know c-at food.
Also too, I just don’t see people warming to these douches:
Also also too, a friend writes:
I hate the optics double standard. Can you imagine the unmitigated hell Dems would catch if a candidate that never served picked a VP that never served from a decommed battleship?
So true.
Baud
Maddow made the same point on Chris Hayes’s show.
EriktheRed
Think you’re missing a word up there.
gogol's wife
Fabulous post title!
Jennifer
RomneyHood/Friar FuckYou ’12!!!!
I hope the fact that Ryan went to college on Social Security survivor benefits – that he wants to take away from everyone else – gets a lot of play.
rikyrah
Willard has shown repeatedly that he has no core, no center, no spine.
And, the President gets what he wants: a clear CHOICE for November.
The Ryan Budget plan is now the ROMNEY/RYAN Budget plan until Election Day.
Willard chose as a running mate, Dubya’s House Point Man on Privatizing Social Security, the author of VOUCHERCARE, which they got the GOP House to vote for not once, but TWICE.
Oh yes, the high fives went up all over the Prudential Building once this was leaked last night. The last group that was stubborn to the President have been Seniors – now, they have to confront for themselves…vote for the scary Black man or vote for those who would take away their Social Security and Medicare. With this selection, these Seniors have been bitchslapped into reality.
The Dangerman
As a 55- person, I’ve already had my fill this morning that Ryan’s plan is designed to SAVE medicare. Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s not a snowjob (too early on the Westcoast for proper metaphors).
quannlace
Things that should be hammered at daily:
‘So Mr. Ryan. You think government is the problem? I guess then…
You’ll give back the Social Security you got after the death of your father, that allowed you to go to college.
Guess you’ll give up your government health care. You want to be a good example to the people you’ll be denying that care to in the future.
And have you ever had any kind of job that wasn’t in the big bad government? Just asking.
SW
We should welcome this. This makes the election a crystal clear ideological choice, with practically unlimited funds backing the right. These people are living in their own little insulated cocoon of FoxWorld and I think they actually believe that everyone agrees with them. They listen to themselves on Fox and CNBC and simply can’t imagine that people will vote against The Producers over The Moochers. All they have to do is pour enough money into the campaign so they can shout loud enough and they are bound to win.
But that is what elections are for. In part to school the delusional faction that in reality they do not represent a majority view. It is called a mandate. When you have no impediment to getting your message out there. The public looks at it. And clearly decides for the alternative, you just aren’t offering them what they are looking for.
Their extremism is a good thing. It has forced a rather mild mannered accomomidationsit politician like Obama to take a hard line stand against them. To lay out the differences in stark black and white terms in a manner that even low information voters can plainly grasp. To highlight the differences instead of trying to have things both ways. THis is what mandates are made of.
DougJ
@EriktheRed:
Thanks!
Weaselone
Local news covered this better than 90 minutes. Heard such gems from some Republican spokesman, and I kid you not:
Ryan is a serious, serious candidate.
Implication that this election was now a choice between equal opportunity and equal outcome philosophy.
Noted that the Romney rally was all white people and Obama was losing support among whites. Noted that people wouldn’t talk about race being an issue and would make excuses, but that race was indeed issue. This was not a criticism, it was a dog whistle/fog horn.
wiscomom
@Jennifer:
I wouldn’t mind if he went to school with father’s Social Security benefits, his mom being a widow and all. It’s that his family was very rich and he went to school using Social Security benefits.
askew
I honestly can’t believe that Romney chose Ryan. I wonder if the media will ever acknowledge that the Romney/Ryan ticket has zero foreign policy experience. Considering we are in the middle of a war, that’s kind of a big deal.
Villago Delenda Est
Well, you have to give Dubya OvenMitt some credit.
He’s placated the 27% base going into Tampa now.
Of course, we’ll have to see how this plays out internally to the GOP.
He still has the problem of Bain Capital, destroyers and exporters of jobs, and his tax returns.
But for now, the vermin of the Village are lapping this shit up.
WereBear
Oh, seniors, the Republican party loves you so.
Because you are such suckers, patsies, and marks!
Suffern Ace
There aren’t enough free sandwiches out there to make these two guys appealing. I doubt they washed their hands before returning to work, either.
mikefromArlington
Lol..CNN just reran a clip of Ryan speaking and behind Ryan is one of the maybe two not white attendees being scolded by some lady to pick up his flag and wave it.
I get that campaigns go for optics but how blatantly obvious can you get?
Jennifer
On second thought, maybe it should be:
RomneyHood/Friar FuckYouIGotMine.
Jennifer
@Suffern Ace: They should be handing out “Maybe You Touched Your Genitals” hand sanitizer rather than sandwiches.
General Stuck
The good part for republicans and Romney is that Ryan, aside from being a cold hearted free market sumbitch, is also in tight with the godbotherers, and I think Mitt needed to give that crowd something to come out and vote for. Or else Mitt had no chance of winning. It is a Peter/Paul situation though, with the emphasis being on Paul, that the price for pleasing Aunt Millie Whitehead of the Kansas Jeebus luvers of the Pentecost, would be to throw granny under the catfood bus. I think Obama and us will get the better of that devil bargain, in the end.
Ryan is a true believer, somewhat to his credit, he truly believes his economic theories will make everyone well off, except the poor, and they would be better off with jeebus anyways, rather than litter our streets with yucky poverty. I don’t think he is capable of bullshitting his way around to sell his oligarchic nonsense. And won’t even try. He is a truth teller, of sorts, and legend in his own mind.
Let the games begin.
nevsky42
Someone have a list of all the government projects Ryan secured for his district all ready to go?
amk
Aaand here comes the O team
swiftboatrapid response ad on vulture/voucher 2012.Zifnab
Are they in matching shirts? Sweet jesus, you could cut the cheese with a knife.
Violet
Excellent thread title. I laughed out loud.
Davis X. Machina
There will be no revolt of the older voters.
Look out the window — do you see the country that an electorate of utility-maximizing homines oeconomici would create? I don’t.
McCain was the first presidential candidate in at least 40 years to lose the election and carry the 60+ vote, which he did, by 10% — and his overall margin was -7.5%.
Romney/Ryan equals, or exceeds, McCain’s share of the 60+ vote. Cat-food be damned, there’s still a Negro in the White House…
John PM
I now firmly believe that Rodney is a deep cover Democratic mole. In a normal universe Romney would be a Democrat.
pk
@WereBear:
Why would the seniors care? Their social security or medicare is not effected. It’s only the under 55s who are screwed. I don’t see how this gives Florida to Obama.
John
Hmm, neither major-party ticket has anyone who has served in the military. The last time that happened, so far as I can gather, was 1932.
Anoniminous
@SW:
This.
Omnes Omnibus
Okay, I just woke up and am on my first cup of coffee, but did Romney really just hand Florida to Obama while I was sleeping? I doubt it puts Wisconsin in play. Nate Silver has WI as +7.3 for Obama and his calculations show that Ryan would add 0.7 for Romney. Fucking Florida is a toss-up. Also too, WI has 10 EC votes while FL has 29. WTF, over.
Davis X. Machina
@John: Historical artifact. There’s been a shortage of wars of the appropriate size lately…
Bill E Pilgrim
@Weaselone:
Yep. This awful choice will help Romney lose but it won’t be from any lack of effort on the part of the conservative-owned news media, who have already decided that Ryan’s label is “budget hawk Paul Ryan”.
And that he’s a serious, serious person who wants to balance the budget, unless balancing it would mean that his rich backers have to pay even a little more taxes in which case forget it.
Mitt Romney’s presentation included him saying “People may disagree with Paul Ryan, but I don’t know anyone who doesn’t respect him”.
Let me make you a list, Mitt.
Or do you think maybe by “hawk” they mean someone who’s hawkish about wanting to explode the deficit with unfunded wars and tax cuts for the rich?
“Hawk” is the new “fraud”.
General Stuck
@Davis X. Machina:
Ryan is no mere supporter of privatizing and gutting social services. He is THE ARCHITECT of that right wing movement into the future, and poses a clear contrast between the two parties, and Romney fully endorses his catfood budget. And Romney, by picking Ryan, is making that gamble with a roll of the dice. With maybe some expectation, the voters will forget about his past bullshit business creds. So I won’t outright say you are wrong. I will say that I welcome such a clear ideological choice, and I think the radical Ryan budget will come off as just that. Radical. Americans don’t elect radical tickets to the WH. I doubt they will now, throwing their beloved SS and medicare into the ring in such a wanton way. But we shall see.
Suffern Ace
@pk: Agreed. These are folks who voted for republicans in droves for the past 40 years before they became elderly. They are used to thinking that nothing bad will happen to them-only those other undeserving folks who aren’t the salt of the earth. I doubt they will swap when 55 year olds are told to work until 80.
Anoniminous
@Davis X. Machina: @Omnes Omnibus:
Have to wait until Wednesday and we get the polling numbers to see how this played.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@The Dangerman@Jennifer:
Like!
Davis X. Machina
@General Stuck: A clear ideological choice would be wonderful, if people had one.
But the debate is already about how, and how much, to cut non-defense, discretionary spending. The debate is already about how, not whether to reduce ‘entitlements’. That train’s left the station, and Secretary of the Treasury Erskine Bowles is waving from the observation deck.
Obama could beat this ticket by 20 points — if he can go back and undo early 2010-early 2011. but he can’t.
So you’re left with affect, and tribe, and past voting behavior, and a lot of other lizard-brain stuff.
There’s a built-in bias towards ‘Simple, easy-to-explain, and wrong’ in majoritarian political systems – and Ryan defines the art form.
sdhays
@pk: That’s true, but two points:
1. People understand the concept of the slippery slope. If I’m 55 or older and let you mess with Medicare for everyone younger than me, I’m drastically increasing the likelihood that MY Medicare is going to be messed with in the future before I kick the bucket, with potentially disastrous consequences.
2. Perhaps more importantly, you have to do some explaining to establish the idea that nothing’s changing for people over 55. W tried this with SS and didn’t get very far. Low information voters will be less likely to pick up on that nuance and more likely to grasp that “major scary changes are going to happen to Medicare if Ryan becomes President”. Sorry, I meant “if Romney becomes President. I’ve been known to make a mistake once in awhile.
Obama already had a good chance of winning Florida. He doesn’t need seniors to swing en masse; he only needs to peel off a small percentage to blow Romney out of the water, and this pick gives him the potential to peel off a bit more than a small percentage of the senior vote.
General Stuck
@pk:
Because SS and medicare are what they think about most every day. It is their lifeline, for most, and they don’t spend a lot of time parsing fine political points about who would be, or would not be affected by such a major change in their beloved programs for retirement. So any talk like that, especially coming from a POTUS campaign and its candidate, will get their backs up, regardless of promises it won’t effect them. And since most white seniors as part of The Silent Generation now dominate in the retired ranks, most were going to vote for the republican as a matter of routine. Now they will have something important to them, at the forefront, to chew on the next 3 months.
WereBear
@pk: Because it’s only the opening salvo.
First they come for the under-55’s… by the time they are pitching all those withered Republican behinds into the Soylent Green machine, they will have voted for their own destruction.
raven
@Davis X. Machina:
What
ever
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Wednesday is too soon. Poll numbers will go up following the pick; they almost always do. Ryan buys Romney no votes that he should not have already had in the bag.He is unlikely to carry his home state (he will have that in common with the top of his ticket – whichever home state you pick). Ryan reminds me of a fly-by-night mortgage broker circa 2003; I just don’t see what he adds to the ticket.
Ben Franklin
@Davis X. Machina:
Tend to agree. That gynormous bubble of humanity, BabyBoomers is comprised of the same aggregate as any voting cluster. Some are informed, others not so much.
People tend to get more conservative as they age. I don’t expect much from these Hippies.
General Stuck
@Davis X. Machina:
I simply don’t agree that discussing SS and medicare in the form of engagement between the parties, is something that shouldn’t be discussed on grounds it cedes ground to the wingers. The worst thing dems could do would be to not even consider managing these programs into the future, as verboten, nor to not engage the wingers on their privatizing bullshit. Medicare is in trouble, in the fairly near term, for solvency. And there is going to have to be a debate about that, and now is as good as any time to have that debate. And we will win it, because the republicans don’t care about managing these social programs, despite their blather that they do. They want to kill them dead as Caesar, and let Wall Street fight over dibs to the carcass.
Davis X. Machina
@General Stuck:
We already had that debate, and the good guys lost.
shortstop
@rikyrah:
Except that Ryan’s little plans are for people currently 55 and under, so seniors inclined to be selfish and racist get to continue being both while voting for Romney and Ryan. Florida goes to Romney, but fortunately, we don’t need it.
General Stuck
@Davis X. Machina:
Are you trolling us? This is nonsense.
mamayaga
@Ben Franklin: As an aging Baby Boom hippie myself, I kinda resent this whole “dump-on-Boomers-stupid_rightwingers” meme. Look at the vote by age range in 2008: http://www.historycentral.com/elections/12008/exit/Age.html. See any age range that bucked the more conservative-as-you-get-older trend? The age range that was most loaded with Boomers in 2008 was 50-64, which went for Obama, unlike the younger Gen X — those who came of age after the Reagan revolution — and the Silent Generation that was too old to be hippies. The radicals of the sixties were never a majority, but we did have at least some impact, and still do.
Anya
@Baud: I like how Rachel stares at Howard Fineman. He gets a bit nervious then continues with his blather.
Davis X. Machina
@General Stuck: It is, at worst, only a slight exaggeration. There’ll be an endless succession of these plans, until one is adopted. There aren’t enough votes in the Senate to stop it, even if it stays Democratic.
1badbaba3
remember when O-dog went all burly brawl at r-thug retreat in jan2010,sans teleprompter? he seemed to take particular pleasure in eviscerating mike pence(who ran whee-whee-whee all the way home back to indiana)and paul ryan,r-thug wunderkind.it was not even close,but ever since then ryan has been bandied about by them as “serious” “smart” “bold” and “courageous”. only r-thugs can think getting barebutt spanked in front of god and all by someone who supposedly cannot speak without a ‘prompter a plus on a resume. good luck,eddie munster. just be glad you drew biden instead of metrosexual black abe lincoln
General Stuck
@mamayaga:
I posted a link to a study a while back, on voting behavior of baby boomers over time. (too lazy to look it up now). But the gist of the study broke boomers into two categories, early or older boomers, versus the younger ones. And the early boomers who came of age in the 60’s has voted overwhelming democrat, and the later boomers, not so much. So Franklin is once again blowing smoke out his ass /
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
Historically you’re correct: a Veep Pick gives a bounce. But Romney threw away the historic playbook – run to the right in the primary and tack to the middle in the general – by picking Ryan. The Veep pick is also, usually, announced at the Convention as the last blast of News-Worthy baloney, Romney threw that one away, too.
(Which leads to the interesting question: why will anybody watch the GOP convention when everybody knows how the script will run?)
We won’t know the reasons for the Ryan pick until 2013, at the earliest. My feeling and opinion is Romeny made the decision, just as he has always made his political decisions in this campaign, in a panic and based solely on the short term. Do I know that? Of course not. But that conclusion, to me, makes a better “fit” with Romney’s previous Decision Making patterns.
General Stuck
@Davis X. Machina:
When did you turn into such a concern troll? You are overthinking shit that hasn’t happened, dude. Medicare and SS are exactly what they have always been, regardless of all the blown smoke recently. We could get hit by an asshole from space crashing to earth, but I ain’t gonna spend a second of my time thinking about it, at least till radar picks it up. If SS and medicare get gutted by wingnuts, then we will likely have much worse problems in this country than that.
Sly
Even Eagleton is an inartful comparison, because at least Eagleton’s major political liability was concealed from everyone except him and his doctors.
Imagine if John Kerry, in August of 2004, complained that the military record that he had been running on for months was suddenly “off limits” because Republicans were being mean, and then went on to pick Dennis Kucinich as his running mate in order to avoid the distraction it was causing.
The Ryan pick is that level of incompetence.
General Stuck
@General Stuck:
but like I said, Medicare is in fiscal trouble just a few years out, and there is going to have to be something done to deal with that.
Anoniminous
Social Security and Medicare have overwhelming popular support.
Public Wants Changes in Entitlements, Not Changes in Benefits:
Haydnseek
I agree with mamayaga. We aging boomer hippies can still do some things very well, and one of them is vote. For Obama. As we get older, we are increasingly resistant to shallow style-driven trends (HOPE posters, etc.) and more interested in defending ourselves against the wingnut insanity that threatens to drown us if we don’t fight back, and fight hard. We fought back in the 60’s and 70’s, and there is still some fight left in us. Experience is the best teacher, and we’ve been learning for a very long time.
Ben Franklin
@mamayaga:
My take was anecdotal based on my interactions with fellow Boomers.
The question related to a general ‘revolt’ amongst that group. I don’t forsee anything beyond NIMBY
Jay in Oregon
@WereBear:
Have you seen Mail My Grandpa Gets, on Twitter? It posts scans of solicitation letters from right-wing grifters looking to sucker money from the elderly.
http://twitter.com/GrandpasMail
JoyfulA
@General Stuck: It’s my understanding that ACA does away with Medicare Advantage, which is a big deal right there.
John
@Davis X. Machina:
True, but Romney and Biden are both of an age to have fought in Vietnam
Ben Franklin
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire……..
You are overthinking shit that hasn’t happened, dude. Medicare and SS are exactly what they have always been, regardless of all the blown smoke recently. We could get hit by an asshole from space crashing to earth, but I ain’t gonna spend a second of my time thinking about it, at least till radar picks it up.
Yesterday, I proposed swallowing a bagful of nickles, then demonstratingthe Olympic difficulty of synchronized swimming, pulling them one at a time, out my ass,
I had no idea someone would literally copycat.
General Stuck
@JoyfulA:
Well, you accurately repeated the GOP talking point, that is false, btw. What the ACA did was get rid of the biggest wingnut welfare around, sucking billions of dollars out of care and into corporate bank accounts.
the study
WereBear
@Jay in Oregon: Yep, but thanks! It explains a lot of inexplicable panicky emails from not-too-bright relations…
General Stuck
@Ben Franklin:
Like I said, ‘pulled out of his ass’
mamayaga
@JoyfulA:
1. Medicare Advantage is in many cases a giant bait and switch: plans are offered with all kinds of great benefits (e.g., dental) and once you’re on them the plan is “revised.”
2. Medicare Advantage plans in general have been overpaid, compared to the same services when provided through straight Medicare. It’s this overpayment that ACA cuts. In essence, it says to health insurers, “You need to compete meaningfully for Medicare dollars, not just dip into Uncle Sam’s deep pockets.”
3. The reduction in reimbursement was predicted to drive insurers out of the Medicare Advantage market. These changes are already in place, and the early evidence is that insurers are not abandoning the market (see http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Medicare/2012/20120628_Cuts_By_Affordable_Care.htm). As a newly-enrolled Medicare recipient, I can assure that hardly a day has gone by in the past few months that I haven’t received a mailer offering me a Medicare Advantage plan.
Elie
I think that Ryan is a weak choice on the atmospherics alone. He has zero charisma and his speech was boring. He comes across as self satisfied and a paper cut out repeat of Romney. Neither has any personality or sense of humor. He has never campaigned for statewide much less national office. As Palin would tell him — that is pretty hard stuff and the pressure, friction and scrutiny will be new to him at the level that he is going to receive it. Romney has already proven himself to be a poor campaigner and the heat isn’t even up to the point its going to be. This boy has no gravitas to help Rmoney and will cause his own problems for the ticket.. so he breaks the “first do no harm” rule..
That said, lets see what rolls out over the next couple of weeks. I don’t see this guy changing the nature of Romney’s poorly run campaign or the poor candidate he is.
A.J.
Lemmee fix that sentence for ‘ya:
You’re welcome.
Ben Franklin
@General Stuck:
A graduate of the Burnsie shool of trolling, with a minor in ankle-biting.
mdblanche
Dammit, I’ve had a long, hard week at work and when I try to finally sleep in on Saturday I’m woken up by the sound of a battleship. Go back to bed Mitt, nobody’s paying attention on a Friday night/Saturday morning, and during the Olympics no less. I’m sure this will help you win back your voter base that’s been starting to slip away. You know, the Village idiots. The rest of us will be trying to figure out why you made your son your running mate. If you wanted a running mate with Washington experience but who doesn’t look like your intern when he’s standing next to you, you should have gone with a Senator. Senators have gravitas. Don’t as me what gravitas is, I don’t know. The nearest I can tell it means “that which a Senator has but a Congressman does not.” Maybe it has something to do with foreign policy experience. Which your ticket lacks. It may not seem useful now but it’s been known to come in surprisingly handy in October in the past. And we all already know that’s something of a weak point for you.
Screw it, I’m going back to bed.
mamayaga
@General Stuck: Looks like we’re tag teaming today.
General Stuck
@mamayaga:
Yup:)
xian
@pk: you don’t think people over 55 know, care about or are related to anyone under 55?
xian
@raven: yeah DxM seems so *concerned*
xian
@Ben Franklin:
Actually that’s not true. They tend to stick to the beliefs they formed in youth, and stick together as a cohort.
xian
@shortstop: why do you think Romney gets Florida? He’s losing it now.
Ben Franklin
@xian:
They tend to stick to the beliefs they formed in youth,
I don’t see how the qualifier makes either statement, untrue.
Omnes Omnibus
@xian: Nate Silver currently has it in his toss-ups, but it is leaning slightly toward Obama. I do not see how the Ryan pick moves things the other way.
shortstop
@xian: Romney’s barely losing it right now — it’s a true tossup, just about the only one. Florida has been steadily regressing politically and the voter suppression efforts going on right now are worrisome. It will be very close either way, but I’d be surprised if Romney doesn’t edge out Obama, simply because the tribalism of many white GOP seniors trumps all. Too many of them quite simply aren’t going to care about what happens to people under 55 under the Ryan plan. It would be a different story if he were lowering the axe on current over-65s.
Ben Franklin
@shortstop:
I find it odd we’re even thinking about taking Florida
Publius39
@John:
But you do have a draft-dodger on one side, which won’t sit well with some Americans.
Chris Grrr™
Isn’t that the picture of illegal sandwich distribution? The ones that were valued over the WI legislated maximum value allowed for election giveaways?
JR in WV
So some of you don’t think seniors care about their kids?
You think my Grandma won’t care about my retirement and medical care as a retiree?
You think our parents and their generation, uncles and aunts and all, they don’t care about the retirement of their sons and daughters, their nieces and nephews?
I think they do. In fact I know they do. Family is what we’re talking about here, and in MY America, family cares about each other.
So that 55 age cutoff, that is meaningless in this election.