Announcing this VP pick on a Saturday morning in August ensures minimal coverage

[bigtree]

Sure, we'll get the wave of news reports next week about Ryan, but this timing shows an amazing lack of confidence from the Romney campaign in their choice. Everyone knows that the weekend announcements and revelations give the campaigns and candidates a chance to soften the media reaction to whatever they're offering. They must expect a shitstorm of criticism to roll this announcement out when the b-list of reporters and pundits are on duty.

No matter. I think they've just given our campaign an opportunity to roll out our own response without the rush of breathless reporting and punditry -- and with an opportunity to plaster their weekend presentation with our own definition of Ryan and the economic straightjacket his very public policy positions will put on his partner Romney. Ryan will tag the Romney candidacy with his anti-Social Security, anti-Medicare, fat-cat tax plan and provide the perfect foil for President Obama's own economic arguments.

I expect that, by Monday morning, we'll see at least a few of Ryan's corrosive economic and political positions overshadowing his running-mate and pushing the republican campaign firmly to the extreme right. It will be all Romney can do to pull the message and impression of his candidacy back to where the majority of Americans vote. He's sure to lose his already dwindling support from independents, even as he makes their marginal conservative base happy that he's chosen a rank-and-file winger.

I look forward to the upcoming economic debates. The choice couldn't be clearer and their opposition -- with Ryan as their new poster boy -- couldn't be more diametrically opposite our Democratic appeal. This will also energize Congress and our Democratic legislators to get behind this President's re-election and defeat the very nemesis of their own efforts to legislate economic fairness and progress.

(I just knew Romney couldn't stomach a minority or a woman as his partner. What a creep.)

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. During the Olympics, no less.

[yardwork]

2. Like you, I knew that Romney would pick a conservative white man as his running mate.

In the end he chose somebody exactly like himself, just as we predicted.

[Dkc05]

5. bigot from whitebread wisconson.

No diversity

[yardwork]

10. Yep. I thought he would be smart enough to pick a southerner, at least.

Apparently even that was too much for Romney. Plus I believe that the Koch brothers - who hold the purse strings - told Romney that he had to pick Ryan.

Now let's see if the Koch brothers can buy this election.

[monmouth]

3. It's as if they were not proud of this selection, keep it as low profile as possible..n/t

[frazzled]

4. Yes, dead-of-night announcement, early Saturday morning introduction

I too think this "news dump" suggests that they know the choice is one that needs a slow intro to anyone but the already loyal base. It demonstrates a deep reluctance on the part of the campaign itself to stand behind it's choice. Boy, are people in California going to be surprised when they wake up ... if they're not out mowing their lawns or on a picnic or something.

[Freddie]

6. Brings new meaning to the term "news dump"

a big smelly one.

[RedSpartan]

7. The problem with a slow intro

is that there is not much time left before the election, Romney is trailing (especially in the Electorcal College projections) and, in any event, Ryan comes pre-defined as someone who wants to give tax cuts to the rich by destroying Social Security and Medicare as we know it. So there really isn't time even for an intro; they need to reverse how he is viewed, and I don't think there is time.

[Tom Rinaldo]

8. A VP pick isn't a Friday afternoon news dump

It's not going to get lost in the rush to leave town and forgotten. If Romney/Ryan don't define Paul Ryan to the public than Obama/Biden will. Ryan will get all the attention due him one way or another. My guess is that Romney can't afford to wait any longer to attempt to redirect the campaign narrative. Bain/Tax returns are pulling him down like cement shoes, he has to change the subject as quickly and dramatically as possible.

Maybe even more important, the Republican base was nearing almost open revolt after Romney's spokesperson bragged about Romneycare. The Sunday spin cycle was looking pretty deadly for Romney - but now talk of the Ryan pick will be predominant.

[bigtree]

9. Ryan will get ALL of the attention

. . . a new chew toy for a media; a new set of negatives. Ryan hasn't been anything more than a glib demagogue and shill for the corporations and his wealthy ilk. It's like the corporate right sent him in to stand up the republicans' wobbly standard-bearer in this election and make sure he doesn't go all Massachusetts on their agenda.

That might play well in the boardroom, but Ryan's economic assaults have never enjoyed support in the overall media; or among the general public, for that matter. Rather than 'change the subject,' this pick ensures that the focus will shift to the extremes of the republican economic argument; of which Ryan has been a principle architect and legislative organizer. It's a major delusion for republicans to imagine that, if just given a national stage and opportunity, the voters would swoon over their anti-worker, anti-progressive appeals.

Romney doesn't benefit, at all, among the voters he actually needs in this election, by having Ryan suck all of his 'moderate' air out of his candidacy.

[bemildred]

11. Rmoney is taking a dive.

Getting elected is no longer the goal. Other games are afoot.

[joeybee12]

12. The only people paying attention are the rat-phucking teabagging base

And this annoucement is clearly designed to placate them.