Why Ryan was a smart pick.

[edhopper]

The "Villagers" love him. He is a "serious" thinker who makes the "hard choices". No matter how many economist like Krugman or Dean Baker show his budget to be a fraud, the journalist and pundits in the Beltway Village love that he wants the 99% to suffer.
As Atrios wrote today:

I will amplify his point that the centrists who comprise the Beltway media love Ryan's desire to inflict pain on the 99%. Like Dancin' Dave on Meet The Press with Axelrod:

“But if you look at how dire the fiscal situation is in the country, we just came off a debt debacle this past summer. Alan Simpson responding to the State of the Union said – where's the guts? Where's the hard stuff? Where's the beef? Where are the hard choices that Americans are going to have to make? What are Americans have--going to have to do with less of if this president gets re-election?”


Or during the GOP primaries:


To Jon Huntsman:

“This is, by all accounts, an age of austerity for this country. A jobs crisis. Also a pending crisis in Washington. I wonder what specifically you would do to say to Americans, "These are cuts I'm going to make in federal spending that cause pain, that will require sacrifice?"

They are reading and willing to make the budget debate about how much the lower classes will suffer, and NEVER about the wealthy paying their share of taxes. Romney has ensured the MSM will keep the dialog in his favor.

And frankly I don't trust Obama to call them on this bullshit. I think we will end up with competing austerity plans.
More pain for us, Yea.

[cali]

1. nonsense. it was a desperation pick that does little for rMoney

And you don't need to trust Obama, but yeah, he'll call them on the bullshit no end. He wants to win. He'll keep doing what he's been successfully doing.

plus, Ryan makes it exceedingly difficult for rMoney to win FL.

[woodsprite]

23. Maybe that's not an issue with Gov Scott taking care of the FL vote. n/t

[edhopper]

26. K & R

[LonePirate]

2. I think he was selected so the Rs have someone with name recognition to run in 2016

[Warren Stupidity]

3. They are going to have defend dismantling medicare.

This pick is part of the pre-concession speech Willard gave when he pleaded for Team Obama to lay off the taxes already. They are going to go on the record as being the party that wants to abolish medicare and social security, move the stakes even further right, and wait for 2016.

[edhopper]

6. You see,

I remember the media vehemently defending Ryan when the Dems accused him of wanting to abolish Medicare.The kept saying he was just changing it. I believe Polifact said that the Dems claim was one of the biggest lies. Romney has just gotten the media on his side for Economics.

[rocktivity]

4. I think Ryan was a smart pick

because now we can threaten voters with the replay of the Bush administration, garnished with the loss of our "trifecta."


rocktivity

[edhopper]

9. That Romney and Bush

have the exact same policies doesn't seem to bother the majority of voters who still give him higher marks for economics than Obama.

[Marsala]

5. If the "Villagers" had any power, Obama would have been the one who suffered from the Bain attacks

They're all just talking heads. They'll be reduced to sputtering, "But doesn't Medicare NEED to be dismantled completely?"

[MoonRiver]

7. I think the Rs have self destructed again,

ala Sarah Palin. Yeah Ryan is smarter, but that makes him a lot more dangerous in the eyes of the sane majority.

[sibelian]

8. It looks like a "smart pick" if you're rich.

But most Americans aren't rich.

[edhopper]

11. Most Americans

believe this crap. They trust Romney more on the Economy.

[cali]

12. actually, that's been a decreasing number for romney

and most Americans don't want to see Medicare diminished, remade or eliminated.

[edhopper]

14. No

but they keep voting in the Party that wants to do it anyway.

[cali]

18. uh, Obama is a dem

and he had a dem congress until a couple of years ago. you make it sound like no dem ever gets elected.

[edhopper]

20. Two years after the GOP

almost destroyed our economy, the good voters gave them a grand victory.
We could easily lose the Senate this time. And I am not discounting Romney, as so many here are. Don't underestimate him, the GIOP, or the voters' stupidity.

[sibelian]

13. They're not convinced.

He isn't very convincing.

[edhopper]

16. Not true

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-07-23/poll-romney-obama-economy/56439758/1

"By more than 2-1, 63%-29%, those surveyed say Romney's background in business, including his tenure at the private equity firm Bain Capital, would cause him to make good decisions, not bad ones, in dealing with the nation's economic problems over the next four years."

[sibelian]

17. ! I have been misled, it seems

thank you

[edhopper]

19. I am not being all doom and gloom

but i think the celebration here of the Ryan pick is mistaken.

[sibelian]

21. If they succeed in getting America to buy the asset-stripping ideology

the US isn't just doomed, it's damned.

[edhopper]

22. My main point

is that the Media already has.

[sibelian]

25. I really REALLY hope you're wrong.

I say this from a very insulated socialist country. It won't be for much longer if Romney gets in. What happens in the States eventually happens everywhere else.

[Motown_Johnny]

10. Bleh, I think we now know why some (R)s want to speak at our convention.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

15. Ryan - highlights the fact they want to get rid of Medicare

[upi402]

24. A Bushista 100%

His Congressional record will be fun. The doughy middle of the road voters will choke on his extremism. Just hope they vote.

[edhopper]

27. It seems that Paul Krugman agrees with me.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/the-ryan-role/

"What Ryan is good at is exploiting the willful gullibility of the Beltway media, using a soft-focus style to play into their desire to have a conservative wonk they can say nice things about. And apparently the trick still works."