Paul Ryan will turn off every women because opposing Women's Reproductive Rights ! --- President Obama is luckier than "Felix, the cat" .... and like Felix, Obama has a bag of beautiful ( but clean ) tricks.
And Mitt Romney declares once more his wish to turn the USA into a Plutocracy with Racist Taints.
POLITICO.COM
"The Arena" Forum
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Romney selects Paul Ryan as vicepresident
Some excerpts :
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Former Rep. Martin Frost Attorney, former Democratic congressman :
Ryan is an incredible gift to the Democrats. Romney can not be elected without Florida and Ryan's position on Medicare concedes the Sunshine State to 0bama. In politics, it's always better to be lucky than smart.
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Mary Anne Marsh Principal, Dewey Square Group; Democratic consultant and analyst :
This is not a pick from a position of strength. Rather it is a pick to address a problem that also creates a problem for Romney.
The Ryan pick reinforces that Romney still has a problem with the conservative base of the GOP and Ryan will help with them.
But the problem is it allows Democrats to double down on its message about the middle class and the GOP attacks on them. From Medicare to state and local aid cuts that will decimate police, firefighters, teachers and education that are so important to seniors and the middle class. That is perfect for the Obama campaign.
People don't vote for President based upon the Vice President. But the Ryan pick reinforces that Romney is more interested in the wealthiest in America rather than the rest of America.
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Gloria Feldt Author of "No Excuses" and former Planned Parenthood CEO :
The choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate marks the final descent of Mitt Romney into tea party hell. Ensnared by his lust for power at all costs, Mr. Etch-a-Sketch has relinquished whatever shreds were left of his claim to an authentic mind of his own.
On its raw politics, picking Ryan is evil brilliance. On its utter disregard for America's long term economic future future and the American values of equal opportunity and justice, it's just plain evil.
But Romney's pick does sharpen the choice for voters. The question now is whether Obama will take the opportunity he has been given to define that choice clearly on his terms and to his advantage.
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Celinda Lake Democratic strategist :
Great choice for Democrats. Horrible choice for Romney.
It shows how much he is worried about solidifying his base. This squarely puts Medicare and Social Security on the table and should help Obama do better with seniors. Ryan clearly fails the test of someone ready to be president.
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Dean Baker Co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research :
Paul Ryan will clearly make an intelligent and articulate candidate. On the other hand he has explicitly laid out positions that the vast majority of the public views as extreme.
He has advocated ending Medicare as it currently exists and replacing it with a voucher system. He has proposed a tax plan that would give large tax cuts to the richest people in the country which would be offset by eliminating items like the mortgage interest deduction and the deduction for employer provided health insurance. The net effect would be a tax increase of several thousand dollars a year for millions of middle income families.
Ryan has also proposed privatizing Social Security. After economic mismanagement destroyed much of the wealth that people had in their homes and their retirement accounts, this position is likely to be even less popular than ever.
And Representative Ryan's budget would eliminate most of the federal government. The Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) analysis of his budget showed all non-health care, non-Security Security spending shrinking to 4.5 percent of GDP by 2040 and to 3.75 percent of GDP by 2050. The military budget is currently over 4.0 percent of GDP and has never been less than 3.0 percent of GDP since the start of the Cold War.
This means that if we take Representative Ryan's views seriously, he wants to get rid of the State Department, the Justice Department, the national park system, the federal court system, the air traffic control system and most of the other activities that we associate with the federal government. This must be the case, since CBO undertook the analysis at Ryan's request and surely he would have corrected them if they misrepresented his position.
It is questionable whether many voters will support a candidate such extreme positions. Romney is now associating himself with these positions by his decision to select Representative Ryan.
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Christine Pelosi Attorney, author and Democratic activist :
Mitt Romney has bowed to the far right of the GOP in selecting Paul Ryan - and mimicking Bill Clinton's "comeback" theme won't sell this pick to Democrats or Independents.
Like John McCain who derided celebrity before picking one in Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney derided Washington politicians before picking one in Paul Ryan, a pro-TARP pro-auto bailout Ayn Rand conservative whose plan to privatize Social Security, end Medicare as we know it and gut Medicaid was called "right wing social engineering" by Newt Gingrich.
Like Sarah Palin, Paul Ryan will ignite the right and offer a stark choice in November. Like Palin, Ryan will try to get out the vote and get under President Obama's skin. Like Palin, Ryan will attack government despite having been employed by it for most of his adult life. Like Palin, Ryan will be seen by supporters as rescuing a floundering campaign and by detractors as a risky choice that lost the White House to President Barack Obama.
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Amy Fried Professor of political science, University of Maine :
This vice presidential pick will turn attention away from Romney's tax returns and Bain experiences, but only for a short time. Rather soon the Obama campaign will neatly incorporate the Ryan plan into its larger narrative involving Romney's focus on redistributing wealth from the middle class upward.
Choosing Paul Ryan clarifies the choice in this race. His plan brings the federal government to a level it had in 1950 - before Medicare, Medicaid, the interstate highway system, environmental regulation, student loans, and research and development. Those programs, which would be eliminated or vastly cut back, are popular. Meanwhile, his tax cuts benefit the wealthy while the middle class would lose deductions like those for college tuition and mortgage interest.
And, while Ryan is characterized as pursuing deficit reduction, his plan wouldn't balance the budget for decades.
By picking Ryan, Romney shows that he has yet to mollify conservatives and gain their trust. After his spokesperson praised Romney's signature achievement as governor, a policy success that has led to 98-99% health insurance coverage, conservatives were angered.
Instead of picking a Marco Rubio who would help Romney appeal to Hispanics nationally and aid him in carrying Florida, Romney picked a running mate whose Medicare ideas - raising the eligibility age to 67 and turning the program into vouchers that are worth less over time - will hurt him in states that skew old.
Romney may believe that Ryan would appeal to independents who care about the deficit, but if they learn the details of the Ryan plan - something the Obama campaign will be happy to tell them about - the appeal will be rather limited.
In the short term, this changes the subject and should give Romney a bounce. In the long term, it's not helpful to his campaign.
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Ross Baker Political scientist, Rutgers University :
A gift basket for the Democrats. The Ryan plan will be the centerpiece of Democratic advertising in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania. It may even put Arizona in play. I doubt that he can help Romney win Wisconsin because Ryan has never campaigned statewide there.
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Peter Fenn Democratic media consultant :
This is clearly NOT a safe, do-no-harm choice. This is risky and if not totally Palin-redo, it is close. The Ryan-Romney plan for the economy is back to the future, more radical tax cuts for those at the very top and harsh hits on America's middle class, including tax increases. In addition, Medicare will be unrecognizable under their plan and the social safety net that Ronald Reagan embraced will disappear.
It is a dangerous pick. The Romney-Ryan ticket will either talk generalities and keep the specifics of their economic plan "secret" (think Nixon's plan to end the Vietnam War) or they will be honest and up front about how they will pay for $5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy (think an end to breaks for savings, health care, mortgage interest on your home, child care, etc) - either way they are in deep trouble.
This will solidify the impression of Romney as anti-middle class and the candidate who stands up for the super wealthy in America.
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John Anzalone Democratic consultant, Anzalone Liszt Research :
Let's do a head count on the Ryan Budget: 1) Turns off seniors and 50-64 year-olds because of its devastating changes to Medicare, 2) Turns off women, middle class families and young voters because of its devastating cuts to education, and 3) Paul Ryan will turn off every women because of his pro-life and defund Planned Parenthood arrogance. Zero for three. Thank You Mitt Romney.
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