Election all but over?

[gdanaher]

OK, I guess I need some education here. Y'all are just all in love with Ryan and I understand why. As conservative tea party folks, he mirrors your views and opinions to a 'tea', but from a presidential election perspective, this leaves me shaking my head in wonder. Perhaps I need to be thinking a little more out of the box. Traditionally a presidential candidate wants to select a running mate who is going to bring additional votes, and hopefully additional states, to the presidential candidate's side. In this instance you try to find someone in a swing state like Florida or New Jersey--states with a few votes--who will draw from their local support and perhaps bring the states' electoral count with them. Ryan is well loved by the very conservative but is coming from a very red state. It was already in the camp so nothing is added there. He is arguably more conservative than Romney, so if someone was already voting Romney, he probably isn't bringing too many more votes there either. His apparent desire to deconstruct social programs sells very well amongst the very conservative voters but a number of republicans have already attempted to distance themselves from this because they know how their aging constituency feels about Medicare. How does Ryan help the Republican cause any more the Palin helped last time?

[RoyGBiv]

If you believe the "pollsters", the midwest has started to see some "lean Obama". Ryan will help to firm that up.

Honestly.... The very obvious fact that a state like Florida might be swayed negatively by putting Ryan on the ticket is, to me, yet another signal that Romney is preparing to take the Left head-on. The Romney campaign must (I pray) already have a plan to deal with this obvious issue (lots of granny's in Florida wheelchairs) and again, it appears that Romney is looking (at least a little bit) past the election and choosing a running mate with substance. Joe Biden was (I don't know how or why since he's such a moron) purely a vote getter. Ryan will present some challenges, but brings substance to the team. I'm looking forward to Biden getting shredded in the VP debate, sure, but Ryan will bring his guns to bear on Obama even more effectively. Ryan is facts, Obama is fiction. Ryan will be the intensity that Romney thus far lacks.

[longtooth]

I sure hope you are right. I struggle w/ the politics of today.
I am a Constitutionalist & it is simple. How we can get back to it is beyond my political understanding.

[74novaman]

Ryan is well loved by the very conservative but is coming from a very red state. It was already in the camp so nothing is added there.

This statement would qualify as "a swing and a miss".

Though Wisconsin did elect a Republican governor in recent history and Walker survived his recall attempt this year, Wisconsin has gone for the Democratic presidential candidate in the last SIX elections, and most pundits and pollsters out there consider Wisconsin a swing state or at best a "leaning Romney" state.

It is far from the locked up, very red state you seem to believe it is. Heck, there are parts of Wisconsin (Madison comes to mind) where the only "red" there is comes from the Hammer and Sickle flags of the former USSR flown by the more outspoken leftist democrats.

[gdanaher]

I'll stand corrected on that point, but will his nomination bring the state to the republicans? The last Rasmussen had it to Obama by 3%. Is one republican district worth more than 3% statewide? I guess we will find out in the next survey.

[RoyGBiv]

I suppose I need to change my signature.
Maybe I should wait until after the convention. There's always enough time for a miracle.

[Jim Beaux]

By the way, Romney made a gaff introducing Ryan as "America's next president." He's right. After Romney, Ryan WILL be president. You heard it here first.

That has been my opinion for quite sometime. Ryan is the most capable guy in this race & I am enthusiastic about him. Also, his selection has changed the dynamics from me merely voting against bee-oh to me now voting for the Romney ticket. I now have more confidence in Romney. His selection gives me hope.

[Jim Beaux]

Substance and Leadership will win this election. Ryan has both.

Youre words are almost exactly as mine, but Im afraid our electorate has discounted those qualities.

[Jim Beaux]

OK, I guess I need some education here. Y'all are just all in love with Ryan and I understand why. As conservative tea party folks, he mirrors your views and opinions to a 'tea', but from a presidential election perspective, this leaves me shaking my head in wonder. Perhaps I need to be thinking a little more out of the box. Traditionally a presidential candidate wants to select a running mate who is going to bring additional votes, and hopefully additional states, to the presidential candidate's side. In this instance you try to find someone in a swing state like Florida or New Jersey--states with a few votes--who will draw from their local support and perhaps bring the states' electoral count with them. Ryan is well loved by the very conservative but is coming from a very red state. It was already in the camp so nothing is added there. He is arguably more conservative than Romney, so if someone was already voting Romney, he probably isn't bringing too many more votes there either. His apparent desire to deconstruct social programs sells very well amongst the very conservative voters but a number of republicans have already attempted to distance themselves from this because they know how their aging constituency feels about Medicare. How does Ryan help the Republican cause any more the Palin helped last time?

Good post. In short, Romney, like McCain didnt generate much excitement, he wasnt new, he was stale, and he didnt float our boats. This election, the interest was not so much in offering new, but in preserving what we have by removing bee-oh. The choice of Ryan has added excitement that we now have someone who represents us, our ethics, our values. Enthusiasm for the Romney ticket will spread across the country and motivate the lackadaisical. It is the same way bee-oh got elected. We now have HOPE AND CHANGE.

[tacticool]

I said it almost a year ago and I haven't seen anything to make me change my mind.

If the Republican Party doesn't nominate a conservative candidate, they're helping to ensure another Obama victory.

[The Annoyed Man]

I'll stand corrected on that point, but will his nomination bring the state to the republicans? The last Rasmussen had it to Obama by 3%. Is one republican district worth more than 3% statewide? I guess we will find out in the next survey.

The last Rasmussen (yesterday's) has them even. It also had Obama with a 43% approval and 57% disapproval rating. Obama is vulnerable.

The other thing to consider about Ryan is this, and it is equally true about some of the other rising young turks of the republican party: conservative republicans are a dime a dozen. Conservative republicans with national appeal are few and far between. We're talking....what....maybe a half dozen names? Thus, Ryan has great appeal beyond the borders of Wisconsin. I mean, here we are in Texas, discussing Paul Ryan's candidacy—NOT whether or not he is conservative enough, capable enough, qualified enough, dynamic enough, young enough, etc., etc. The same could be said for Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and 3 or 4 others whose conservative credentials are unimpeachable and who are well regarded nationally by republican voters, but overall, it is a small number of people who meet those criteria. Furthermore, Sarah Palin got the base fired up because she spoke all the red-meat phrases, had personal conservative values, and....well, she was hot looking with an M4 in her hands. Paul Ryan is bright as hades, conservative, tough, and intellectually gifted all the way down to the bone. But to add to that, Ryan has no skeletons in his closet—something which Sarah Palin was painted with by the media almost immediately, whether they were true or not. Ryan is squeeky clean. They will find nothing on him. And he is by far one of the brightest bulbs in the conservative armatorium. Whether or not you like him, you can't paint him with the stupid brush. It just won't stick.

So with Romney's somewhat squishy reputation propped up by Ryan's impeccable credentials, we have a strong campaign going forward.

Another thing to think about......I can't stand Obama. I just want him to shut up and go away. But every day he is in office, I pray for his good health; because if something happens to him, we get President Biden. That should scare the tinkle out of all of us. That would be like handing a chimp a loaded gun and hoping nothing goes wrong. But with a VP Ryan, God forbid something should happen to Romney, but if it does, the administration falls into capable hands.

FDR had Truman, who was a refreshing gift to us when FDR passed.

Truman had Alben Barkley (who?)

JFK had LBJ. Love him or hate him, LBJ was not a traitor. He was wrong on a lot of things—most especially his "Great Society"—but he wasn't a dummy. He was a smart man, and he would not have sold the US down the river. And he managed the transition into the presidency fairly well, considering the very difficult circumstances and the cold war stakes.

Nixon had Ford, who wasn't congenitally stupid.

Ford had Nelson Rockefeller.

Jimmy Carter had Walter Mondale. Again, not somebody with whom I would agree about almost anything, but at least I know he arrived at his beliefs by careful consideration. He was wrong, but I think he was a fundamentally honest man. Comparing him to Biden, old Uncle Joe comes out looking retarded.

Ronald Reagan had George HW Bush. He did OK for himself.

GHW Bush had Dan Quayle, and....well.....OK, forget about Quayle.

Clinton had Al Gore, who gave us the Internet and the hypocrisy of carbon tax credits.

Of coure GW Bush had Darth Vader....a good choice for scaring people into line and projecting The Force.

Which brings us to Obama/Biden. Really? What was he thinking? When we look at the last 70 years or so, presidents have often picked VPs who were ciphers, nobodies, people whom you just PRAYED that nothing would happen to the president. And Joe Biden brought such selections to the level of a high art. Absolutely the loosest canon the office has ever seen.

So compared to all of those, Paul Ryan is a peach. He would be brilliant as a presidential candidate. I don't think he hurts Romney's campaign one single bit. He will never pop off the way Biden does. He will never stick his foot into his mouth up to the calf, like Biden does every other week day plus Sundays. He will never make his boss look bad or call Romney's judgement into question. And his arguments on economic policy are irrefutable, not matter how many nasty commercials liberals make about him. Irrefutable.

Another thing, he's been in the House of Representatives since 1999, long enough to know how it is played. Rubio would have had the same albatross that Obama had—only 2 years in the Senate.

He's a brilliant choice.

By the way, today's Rasmussen Report:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_ ... cking_poll

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

Saturday, August 11, 2012

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 46% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 44%. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided. See tracking history.

And by the way, Rasmussen is also coming up with good numbers for Ryan.

EDITED TO CORRECT A COUPLE OF SPELLING ERRORS....

[74novaman]

This six minute video alone should convince anyone that Ryan is somebody interested in fighting the good fight, but more importantly shows he's someone who can do it with logic and facts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPxMZ1WdINs

I love Obamas face at the end of the clip. I think if he had a top 5 "enemies" list, Paul Ryan would be on it. That's reason enough for me to be excited about him as a VP candidate.

[SewTexas]

Yeh, What TAM said!

yesterday Conservative Republicans, a growing population, may or may not have voted...honestly. and if they voted they may not have been voting for Romney, they would have been voting against Obama. Now, Ryan has given us someone to vote FOR.

Honestly....last election....I voted for Willow and the baby.

[G26ster]

I think Ryan is a fine man, but I fear that his selection may cost Florida for Romney, and without Florida there is no win regardless of how much it fires up the Conservative base. You can't argue logic, or convince the army of seniors there that Ryan won't change their existing Medicare and SS, regardless of how many times he says no one under 55 will be affected, or how many times he says you can stay on the current system. They tune that part out. It will be interesting to see the Florida polls after his naming. If they dip to a significant degree, it will spell big trouble for Romney. Very few states decide elections, and Florida is a huge one.

[SwimFan85]

By the way, Romney made a gaff introducing Ryan as "America's next president."

I actually had to rewind to listen to it again, as I couldn't believe he'd make that mistake, but also couldn't figure out why he'd say that. I considered momentarily that he was stepping down to run in the VP position, with Ryan as POTUS.

That would be a big improvement.