Ryan Pick: Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest

BY SAM FIELDS
The Romney pick of Rightwing Congressman Paul Ryan betrays both Mitt’s weakness and poor organization:
  • First and foremost the selection of Paul Ryan has made certain that the GOP attack on the Obama economy is over. It will now be a referendum on continuing Medicare and Social Security as we know them.
  • Of those who know who Ryan, I would bet 90% only know about last year’s “Ryan Budget”.  It calls for replacing our current “fee for service” Medicare system with subsidy to let Seniors—thinks likely voters– buy private insurance.  Everyone agreed this was going to mean at least $5000 out of pocket to those of us on Medicare.
  • I wonder whether the vetting of Ryan included checking out his income tax returns and for how many years?
  • When Republicans run for the nomination they run to the right.  You then have to move to the center for November. Picking a right-winger like Ryan makes clear that Romney’s people believe he has still not fired up the conservative base.  This is the same problem that McCain had in 2008 which led him to the dingbat from Wasilla.
  • As part of the Ryan “stand-on-you-own” image he will be talking about growing up without a dad.  You can bet “dollars to donuts” that we will rather soon learn that after his father died the family sought and obtained every kind of Federal government assistance beginning with Aid for Families With Dependent Children (AFDC).  I would also not rule out food stamps, Section 8 housing, etc.
  • Presenting the prospective VEEP is one of the most important events in a Presidential campaign.  Was the decision to do it at 9 a.m. on a Saturday part of a master plan to introduce Ryan when a third of the country was likely to be sound asleep?


42 Responses to “Ryan Pick: Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest”

  1. Flamingodoll says:

    I don’t think Ryan had a domestic terrorist as a friend and other questionable friends. To many to note here. He believes in personal responsibility and less government and he has said what he thinks is good for the country not what he thinks people want to hear. I say anybody but Obama.

  2. Sam The Sham says:

    Romney picking Ryan is an indication that he will concentrate on financial issues in his campaign. Of all the people cited as veep possibles, Ryan has the best credentials when it comes to fiscal matters.

    Ryan is fiscally conservative but more moderate on social issues, as shown by his stance on gay issues.

    The best thing you can do when picking a VP is to not hurt your chances. Veeps never really add that many votes, but could be a lightning rod for detractors. Ryan is a safe choice in this respect.

    The best thing about Ryan is his competence. It will be a delight watching him dismantle Biden in a debate.

  3. been watching politics for a long time -- says:

    Sam — your opposition to Ryan sends a very strong message that Romney made the right decision. And, stop the left-wing crap about his family being on food stamps, section-8 housing, etc … that’s as honest as the ad about the lady who died of cancer because Romney was the head of Bain Capital. As a lawyer with a formerly prestigious law firm, you should have higher principles.

  4. Floridan says:

    Seems like a stange pick to me. The Ryan budget has a lot to pick apart, and by selecting Ryan, Romney is going to have to defend every jot and tittle of it.

    I thought that Chis Christie would have been the Veep who would give Romney the best chance to expand his numbers, not that Christie wouldn’t have brought his own baggage to the campaign, as well.

  5. WestDavieResident says:

    Mr Fields would have knocked any Romney pick for VP so Sam’s sarcasm is not unexpected.

    Ryan is a homerun for Romney.

    This will be an election for the hearts of the industrial base of our country. Ryan will appeal to the blue collar voters of WI, MI, PA, and OH.

    He tragically grew up in a single parent household which will tug at the hearts of those single moms supposedly in the bag for Obama.

    And although you may think his budget plan is dynamite which will blow up in Romneys face, voters are tired of Democrats demogauging Social Security and Medicare reform. At least Ryan’s plan offers a starting point for a solution.

    And Romney-Ryan offer a stark contrast to the tax borrow and spend disaster of another Obama-Biden term.

    But you are correct that Ryan will motivate the GOP base that sat on their hands for McCain in 2008 and now blame themselves for letting others elect the worst President in my lifetime. They won’t let that happen again.

  6. City Activist Robert Walsh says:

    I appreciate your reporting on the National scene Buddy. Alot is going on in Ft.Lauderdale that is w/ looking into. First Comm.Dale Holeness(county) and his Cricket club, is worthy at being examined(Com.wexler(good enough for me) made a motion (before recess) to basiccly “open up the books” concerning his Cricket club. Th e motion died on the floor. That being said it stll does not satisfy alot of us. That being stated we, myself included(obviously Comm.Wexler(we got your back)want more details(to say the least) as to how much money Holeness is bringing in, and since he is using the County logo(wheres are cut). Again maybe you coul d addres this to the Commissioner & to Comm.Wexler as to her concerns. It does not matter that th e motion did not carry. Secound could you look into Ft.Lau’ allstar City Manager and his pursuit to (get this) that Bugsy here (lee feldman) wants to buy out(cash in) Dr.george Handbury’ 401a contribution($$)-former City Manager-who by the way ORCHESRATED this whole mess. What about all the others. What is w/ th e secrecy? Why all this while the Comm. is in recess. Maybe a comment from Dr.Hanbury himself would be appropriate. Also why is it that everyone on the 7th floor-can’t stand him(hence coming to me). Lastly about Bugsy again, w/ the desinated historic properties bythe riverwalk I believe that there are propasals to delevelope the area (houses included) when they have been Desinated since 1989 as historic. I mean your guess is as good as mine. Once again there Mr.Feldman you have been exposed. But yet he wants to take 300million and go dixie w. City funds w. his Don Draper finace guy who by th e way is going to make a fortune on our dime.(not so fast there Ed). Good luck Buddy. As far as Paul Ryan as Romney’ VP -well its better than Sarah Palin(you betcha)…

  7. Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    @WestDavieResident

    I didn’t get the memo that approved the legalization of medical marijuana…

    You’re high, right?

  8. Broward Independent says:

    Nos. 3 and 5 nailed it. No matter who Romney picked as a VP, the hardcore liberals were going to find fault.

    The left got what it wanted. Romney picked the one guy in DC who proposed a budget that requires this country to have an adult conversation about our financial future. Compare that against the Democrats budget for each of the last three years. Oh, I forgot, there hasn’t been one.

  9. Ha Ha Ha says:

    So now the Republican ticket is Gordon “Greed is Good” Gecko for president, with Ayn “I literally wrote a book entitled The Virtue of Selfishness” Rand for vice president…

    When McCain picked Palin, I thought the Republicans couldn’t possibly get any dumber than this. Well, obviously I was wrong!!

    Axelrod already has Romney quadruple-tied to Bain Capital and is gleefully whipping his ass. Bainboy is already down by 9 points according to the latest Fox News poll. And now, incredibly, Bainboy has just doubled down on “Greed is Good”! You betcha!!!

  10. WestDavieResident says:

    @Chas Stevens. I don’t need marijuana like Obama did up through his college years (and later?) to face reality. Nor do the silent majority of American voters.

    The reality is our country is close to a financial collapse that phony Democratic budgets can no longer hide from the voters.

    As Ryan has said, either address our issues now or face worse choices in the future. The Romney-Ryan team will give hope again to those being told by Obama and the liberal media to accept the new norm of 7-8% unemployment, high gas prices, and less stature in the world.

    Obviously my hope for my children’s future America is different than yours.

  11. Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    From the NYTimes.

    Mr. Ryan’s Cramped Vision
    Published: August 11, 2012

    Mitt Romney’s safe and squishy campaign just took on a much harder edge. A candidate of no details — I’ll cut the budget but no need to explain just how — has named a vice-presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, whose vision is filled with endless columns of minus signs. Voters will now be able to see with painful clarity just what the Republican Party has in store for them.

    As House Budget Committee chairman, Mr. Ryan has drawn a blueprint of a government that will be absent when people need it the most. It will not be there when the unemployed need job training, or when a struggling student needs help to get into college. It will not be there when a miner needs more than a hardhat for protection, or when a city is unable to replace a crumbling bridge.

    And it will be silent when the elderly cannot keep up with the costs of M.R.I.’s or prescription medicines, or when the poor and uninsured become increasingly sick through lack of preventive care.

    More than three-fifths of the cuts proposed by Mr. Ryan, and eagerly accepted by the Tea Party-driven House, come from programs for low-income Americans. That means billions of dollars lost for job training for the displaced, Pell grants for students and food stamps for the hungry. These cuts are so severe that the nation’s Catholic bishops raised their voices in protest at the shredding of the nation’s moral obligations.

    Mr. Ryan’s budget “will hurt hungry children, poor families, vulnerable seniors and workers who cannot find employment,” the bishops wrote in an April letter to the House. “These cuts are unjustified and wrong.”

    Mr. Ryan responded that he was helping the poor by eliminating their dependence on the government. And yet he has failed to explain how he would make them self-sufficient — how, in fact, a radical transformation of government would magically turn around an economy that is starving for assistance. At a time when state and local government layoffs are the principal factor in unemployment, the Ryan budget would cut aid to desperate governments by at least 20 percent, far below historical levels, on top of other cuts to mass transit and highway spending.

    Those are the kinds of reductions voters of all income levels would actually feel. People might nod their heads at Mr. Romney’s nostrums of smaller government, but they are likely to feel quite different when they realize Mr. Ryan plans to take away their new sewage treatment plant, the asphalt for their streets, and the replacements for retiring police officers and firefighters.

    All of this will be accompanied, of course, by even greater tax giveaways to the rich, and extravagant benefits to powerful military contractors. Business leaders will be granted their wish for severely diminished watchdogs over the environment, mine safety and food quality.

    Mr. Romney had already praised the Ryan budget as “excellent work,” but until Saturday the deliberate ambiguity of his own plans gave him a little room for distance, an opportunity to sketch out a more humane vision of government’s role. By putting Mr. Ryan’s callousness on his ticket, he may have lost that chance.

  12. The Truth says:

    Trickle down economics got us in this mess. Now Romney, at the top of the trickle, wants to turn back the clock along with the rest of the GOP.

    This country is never going back to the 1950s. Whatever Romney and Ryan say during the campaign will not come to pass. Will they cut Medicare and let older people die because they don’t have medical insurance? Will they close the post office, passenger trains, the immigration service, the federal courts and every other federal service to meet the pledge of never raising taxes.

    Obama is the only one telling the truth that it will take cuts and increases in taxes to balance the budget. That is the TRUTH.

  13. Ha Ha Ha says:

    http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/11/v-fullstory/2946290/making-a-case-to-close-wealth.html

    Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says inequality is weighing on the recovery

    […] We could have a more equal society and a more efficient, stable, higher-growing economy. […] Even if you don’t have any moral values and you just want to maximize GDP growth, […] this level of inequality is bad for our economy. […] The fundamental problem is not government debt. Over the past few years, the budget deficit has been caused by low growth. If we focus on growth, then we get growth, and our deficit will go down. If we just focus on the deficit, we’re not going to get anywhere. This deficit fetishism is killing our economy. And you know what? This is linked to inequality. If we go into austerity, that will lead to higher unemployment and will increase inequality. Wages go down, aggregate demand goes down, wealth goes down. All the homeowners who are underwater, they can’t consume. We gave money to bail out the banking system, but we didn’t give money to the people who were underwater on their mortgages. They can’t spend. That’s what’s driving us down. It’s household spending.

    Q. And those with money to spend, you point out, spend less of every dollar. Those at the top of the income scale save nearly a quarter of their income. Those at the bottom spend every penny. Is that why tax cuts seem to have little effect on spending?

    Exactly. When you redistribute money from the bottom to the top, the economy gets weaker. And all this stuff about the top investing in the country is nonsense. No, they don’t. They’re asking where they can get the highest returns, and they’re looking all over the globe. So they’re investing in China and Brazil and Latin America, emerging markets, not America. If the U.S. is a good place to invest, we’ll get money from all over the world. If we have an economy that’s not growing, we won’t get investment. That’s exactly what’s happening. The Federal Reserve stimulates the economy by buying bonds. Where’s the money go? Abroad. […]

  14. Shitty activist Walsh 2 says:

    Dude, you are illiterate. really. what are you smoking? Is judy stern your supplier?

  15. Ha Ha Ha says:

    Sam the Sham (@ 1 PM above) totally lies: “Ryan is […] more moderate on social issues, as shown by his stance on gay issues.”

    The truth: Ryan cosponsored a bill that would ban common forms of birth control, in vitro fertilization, and abortions even in cases of rape or incest. He voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, voted against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and sponsored a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality.

  16. Norm Price says:

    Typical idiotic remarks from Sam Fields. All you do is show your total ignorance when it comes to politics. I am a Democrat but definitely will not vote for Obama. Its amazing how you cancriticize anyone that is a republican but when it comes to our country being destroyed by the socialism of Obama with his total arrogance I can only hope and pray that he is not reelected then maybe he can concentrate on his golf more

  17. WestDavieResident says:

    Thanks for the NYT editorial. LOL. They should be more concerned about their plummeting subscriber base. As to Nobel Laureate Stiglitz, I stopped giving that socialist group any credence when they awarded it to Obama when he was just taking office.

    I just love the hate coming from the left. Looking forward to their reaction the day after Romney-Ryan win in November.

  18. voter says:

    maybe voters will turn out now that Ryan is VP choice. seems to have gotten the conversation started real quick here. If obama gets re-elected Buddy please mark your calendar to revisit this in Aug 2016 so we can all crow about how great we are doing

  19. H2obob says:

    Sam is such a pinko that he donates his fees to illegal immigrants, homeless bums, felons, and any other n’er do well how he wants to distribute his non-harder earned money to.

  20. H2obob says:

    Sorry for the typos, I was sick to my stomach from reading Sam’s drivel.

  21. Sam The Sham says:

    Hey Ha Ha Ha, great copy and paste job from the Obama campaign site.

    Look! I can copy and paste too!
    In 2007, he supported the Employee Non-Discrimination Act, banning workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians and said he has gay friends. “They didn’t roll out of bed one morning and choose to be gay. That’s who they are,” he said, acknowledging he “took a lot of grief” for the ENDA vote from members of his own party, so much so that he “stopped worrying about it.”
    Read more at http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2010/03/01/GOP-Congressman-Paul-Ryan.aspx#XusyFAlcFvQX6TWL.99

  22. Ha Ha Ha says:

    Hey Sam the Sham, Ryan only cast a SINGLE vote for ENDA in 2007, and that was at a time when it did not yet include protection against gender identity discrimination.

    In the most recent (111th Congress) Ryan was OPPOSED to (refused to co-sponsor) the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Also, banning people from the military because they are gay (which Ryan supports) IS workplace discrimination. So the most you can say that Ryan briefly flip-flopped on that issue but generally (and currently) maintains homophobic positions.

    Ryan sponsored a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT to take the FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT to marry AWAY from gay people! Only because they are gay!

    ——————–
    http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/blogs/bostonspirit/2012/08/paul_ryan_rates_a_zero_with_hr.html

    Paul Ryan rates ‘zero’ on LGBT issues with HRC

    Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s vice presidential candidate pick, has consistently voted against legislation supported by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy group.

    Ryan has not supported the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), or the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Repeal Act of 2010, as well as many other positions important to HRC and its members.

    Ryan received a “zero” ranking for his positions on LGBT legislation in both the 111th Congress and the 109th Congress.

    http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/congressional-scorecard-for-the-111th-congress
    —————-
    http://www.advocate.com/politics/election/2012/08/11/here-lgbt-rights-record-paul-ryan-who-reports-say-romney-pick-veep

    Paul Ryan as VP Matches Mitt Romney on Homophobia

    Paul Ryan has voted to ban same-sex marriage and adoption by gay couples, and he voted against repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays serving openly in the military.

    Mitt Romney’s pick for Rep. Paul Ryan as running mate means he’s chosen a potential vice president who matches his views on LGBT rights, and who is on the record with votes against those rights in Congress. […]

    Romney supports amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. And Ryan twice voted in support of the failed Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006. […]

    Also, as a U.S. representative for Wisconsin’s first congressional district, Ryan was more recently faced with a ballot question in his home state on whether to ban marriage equality. He again lined up against marriage equality when asked about the initative during a February appearance on Meet the Press. […]

    In 2003, Ryan voted in favor of the Marriage Protection Act, which would have prevented federal courts from considering and possibly overturning the Defense of Marriage Act. Romney also backs DOMA.

    Ryan voted in 1999 in favor of banning same-sex couples from adopting in the District of Columbia, over which Congress often exerts control. And although Romney acknowledges it’s legal for gays and lesbians to adopt in many places, he doesn’t go so far as to support it. In fact, he brags about siding with the Catholic Church in Massachusetts as governor as it sought an exemption that would have let it discriminate in adoptions and in foster care despite receiving government money.

    Ryan also lined up with Romney on repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” when it came before Congress in 2011. Ryan voted against repealing DADT, and Romney was outspoken in his opposition to repeal. […]

    Romney’s record on the need for hate crimes laws is unclear. But when the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed through the House in 2009, Ryan voted against it.

    One area where the two differ is on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Ryan voted in 2007 in favor of the law, which would have prohibited workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation but did not yet include gender identity. Romney was once also in favor of ENDA but changed his mind.

    Romney told the Log Cabin Republicans in 1994 that he would sponsor ENDA if elected to the U.S. Senate. Then in 2006 he told National Journal that ENDA would “open a litigation floodgate and unfairly penalize employers at the hands of activist judges.” He dismissed ENDA, saying, “I don’t see the need for new or special legislation.”

  23. Sam The Sham says:

    Yes, You have superb copy and paste skills. You even know how to google.

    Your efforts have further convinced me that Ryan is an outstanding choice and the perfect man for the job. Thanks!

  24. Ha Ha Ha says:

    Clarification: Ryan supports DADT, which “virtually” bans gays from the military (a gag order which attempts to make them invisible). Not a physical ban, but rather a social ban.

  25. Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    @Sham

    This is an excellent time for you to become a missing person.

  26. Sam The Sham says:

    Hi Chaz. You know me. Can you guess who I am?

  27. christine says:

    Sam The Sham,
    You have my condolences.

  28. Ha Ha Ha says:

    @Sham

    Perhaps you should learn how to use Google – it might save you the embarrassment of being called out on false statements. Progressives on gay issues have HRC ratings at or near 100. Moderates have HRC ratings at or near 50. Paul Ryan has repeatedly received a HRC rating of ZERO. It isn’t even possible to get a lower score than that. He’s no moderate, he’s a homophobe. And as explained in the Advocate article I quoted above, Romney is a homophobe too.

    Now contrast the Republican party’s extreme homophobia with the Democratic party’s upcoming new plank endorsing same-sex marriage.

  29. Ha Ha Ha says:

    http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20120812_Platform__Same-sex_marriage.html

    (Associated Press, Sun, Aug. 12, 2012, 10:07 AM) – The national Democratic Party’s platform committee endorsed gay marriage Saturday for the first time and called for the repeal of a federal law that recognizes marriage as between a man and a woman. […]

    The platform says Democrats support “marriage equality” and the “movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples.” […]

    The platform also calls for repeal of a 1996 law [DOMA] which recognizes marriage as between a man and woman. Some federal courts have struck it down as unconstitutional.

  30. Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    The better question to ask, and the answer is “no”, would be, “do I give a flying fuck you you are.”

  31. Ha Ha Ha says:

    http://www.businessinsider.com/colin-powell-endorses-gay-marriage-following-obamas-lead-2012-5

    Colin Powell Endorses Gay Marriage On CNN (May 23, 2012)

    BLITZER: I remember, you were chairman of the joint chiefs when you installed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the U.S. Military that prevented gays from serving openly. I know you changed your attitudes over these years. But what about gay marriage? Are you with the president in supporting gay marriage?

    [Retired 4-Star US Army General & Bush Administration Secretary of State Colin] POWELL: I have no problem with it. And it was the Congress that imposed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” It was certainly my position, and my recommendation, to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred, if you’ll recall. But, as I’ve thought about gay marriage, I know a lot of friends who are individually gay but are in partnerships with loved ones. And they are stable a family as my family is. And they raise children. And so I don’t see any reason not to say that they should be able to get married…”
    —————
    http://www.advocate.com/news/daily-news/2011/10/06/uk-prime-minister-i-support-gay-marriage-because-i-am-conservative

    U.K. Prime Minister: “I Support Gay Marriage” (October 06 2011)

    In what might be viewed as a contradictory statement here in the United States, U.K. prime minister David Cameron said he supports same-sex marriage precisely because he is a conservative.

    His comments were made while speaking to the Conservative Party in Manchester, England, on Wednesday.

    “I stood before a conservative conference once and I said it shouldn’t matter whether a commitment is between a man and a woman, or a man and a man, or a woman and woman. And you applauded me,” he said. “Five years on, we are consulting on legalizing gay marriage, and to anyone who has reservations, I say this: yes, it’s about equality. But it’s also about something else: commitment. Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us; that society is stronger when we make vows to each other and support each other. So I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I’m a Conservative.” […] [emphasis added]
    ———————-
    http://www.businessinsider.com/british-pm-cameron-gay-marriage-legal-by-2015-2012-7

    (Jul. 26, 2012) David Cameron Says Gay Marriage Will Be Legal In Britain By 2015

    On the eve of Mitt Romney’s visit to London, UK Prime Minister David Cameron chose to reaffirm his support of gay marriage, and said he believed it would be legal within three years.

    Addressing a group of LGBT community members in a reception, Cameron vowed that he hoped to follow in Scotland’s footsteps, which recently declared it would attempt to legalize gay marriage by 2015, reports CNN.

    “I just want to say I am absolutely determined that this Coalition government will follow in that tradition by legislating for gay marriage in this Parliament,” he told the crowd. […]

  32. christine says:

    I am not Sam.
    He has known all about you for about 7 years now…

  33. WestDavieResident says:

    I thought this was a conversation about Romney-Ryan. While gay marriage is an important topic, can we stick to the bigger issue of Sam Field’s ridiculous characterization of Congressman Ryan?

  34. Mister Courthouse says:

    Give Ryan a chance to explain himself, Fields.

  35. Watcher says:

    Ryan is purveying “death panels” called vochers which will save the budget money and says that your money will keep you alive…..an acceptable proposition to him…but will it sell???

  36. Ana Gomez-Mallada says:

    Surprise, surprise: the right likes Ryan. The left hates him. The fact that that have come out so fast and furious (couldn’t resist) against him is a sure indication that Romney made the right choice.

    Now let’s talk about the ignorant clown in the White House whose unemployment numbers CONTINUE to be higher than in decades, while he whines: “It’s all Bush’s fault!”. Guess what Mr. President: Bush hasn’t been President for 4 years. YOU OWN this economy with high unemployment, rampant foreclosures, skyrocketing gas prices and increasing inflation. THAT is what this election is about.

  37. ExCompassionate Conservative says:

    I can’t wait for the radio ads , magazine ads and billboards in Black oriented media featuring two white guys talking about a welfare luvin foodstamp president who is not an American like us.

    Pat Buchannan can be in the backround talking about your “boy” in the White House.

  38. Ha Ha Ha says:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/paul-ryan-on-soapbox-at-iowa-state-fair/2012/08/13/7a04d3c4-e598-11e1-8f62-58260e3940a0_story.html

    Paul Ryan on soapbox at Iowa State Fair
    By Dana Milbank, Published: August 13

    Paul Ryan was on his soapbox — and he couldn’t get off fast enough.

    The lanky lawmaker from Wisconsin made his first solo appearance as Mitt Romney’s running mate on Monday, and the Romney campaign chose to have him do it from the Iowa State Fair. This was a mistake. […]

    Ryan spoke from what fairgoers call the soapbox — a small platform where any citizen, even a politician, can have 20 minutes to voice his or her mind. But because of the open venue, the crowd of 3,000 people could not be cleansed of Democrats, indifferent Iowans and other undesirable elements.

    Ryan, in a trying-too-hard outfit of blue jeans, wide leather belt and red-and-white checked shirt, began with a painful effort to establish common ground with the locals. […]

    Ryan didn’t get his 20 minutes on the soapbox. He proceeded through the mayhem for about 12, but even Fox News Channel pulled away from its coverage as a wrestling match between protesters and Romney supporters blocked the camera shot. 

    It was not exactly the kickoff Ryan and Romney wanted, but it did help to establish why Romney chose the young House Budget Committee chairman as his running mate: Ryan is almost as awkward as Romney.

    Ryan has a deft touch in Washington when he speaks at think tanks or mixes it up with reporters. He has an easy manner and a confident command of policy. But he hasn’t been tested much as a retail politician. He doesn’t have to worry about close campaigns in his heavily Republican congressional district, and he hasn’t had to win over voters much beyond Racine and Kenosha. 

    His speech, stitched together with connectors such as “one more thing” and “another thing,” was not quite polished, and he began by waving a Green Bay Packers jersey before the Iowans, who are as likely to be Chicago Bears or Minnesota Vikings fans. After the first wave of hecklers and stage crashers was cleared, Ryan went through his five-point agenda for economic growth, mixing his beloved statistics (“Ninety-seven percent of the world’s consumers are out of this country”) with his trademark gloom (We’re “spending our children into a diminished future”) and a strained effort to portray himself as a local. “We need to grow and make things in states like Wisconsin, Iowa, the Midwest,” he said.

    But the only thing being made at that moment was noise. By then, Ryan was trying to out-shout the protesters, who were vociferously demanding that he “stop the war on the middle class.” Just in front of the cameras, a man with gray hair and a beard shook his fist, shouting at Ryan as Romney supporters covered him in Romney signs and tried to pull him down. A Romney sign flew through the air, and a policeman joined the ruckus, shouting and pointing. Feedback squealed from the sound system.

     “We’re used to this in Wisconsin,” Ryan claimed. […]

  39. Duke says:

    Ryan was born into a wealthy family. His dad died when he was a teenager. I heard on the news last night that after his dad’s death, he was able to take advantage of social security death benefits in order to attend college. What I find alarming about this is why a family of tremendous wealth would want to rely on social security death benefits to cover college tuition, and why Ryan now wants to overhaul the very same system that helped him accomplish his goals in life.

  40. Ha Ha Ha says:

    http://www.salon.com/2012/08/13/paul_ryan_the_new_dan_quayle//

    Paul Ryan: The new Dan Quayle?

    He’s the least popular Republican pick for V.P. since 1988, and some in the GOP are distancing themselves already (Monday, Aug 13, 2012)

    It’s been only three days, but there are already some signs that Mitt Romney’s pick of Rep. Paul Ryan for the vice presidential slot may give some GOP strategists heartburn. The first poll taken since the announcement, from USA Today and Gallup, shows that Ryan is, at the moment, the least popular number-two pick since 1988’s Dan Quayle.

    Forty-two percent of Americans view Ryan as a “fair” or “poor” choice, while just 39 percent think he is an “excellent” or “pretty good” pick. The Romney campaign says this is just because Ryan is not very well known yet, but Sarah Palin had worse name recognition in 2008 than Ryan. About 50 percent of Americans knew Ryan before Romney picked him, while a “substantial majority” didn’t know Palin, according to a Gallup poll from the time. Nonetheless, Palin elicited a more positive reaction than Ryan, with a net positive rating of close to 10 percent, compared to Ryan’s net negative of 3 percent. Ryan does beat both Palin and Quayle when respondents were asked if the candidate is qualified to take over as president, should something happen to the president, but those are the only vice presidential nominees he beat out of the recent pool. Palin also helped raise almost twice as much money as Ryan in the first weekend after their selections, though she had an extra half day to do it, as her announcement came Friday afternoon and Ryan’s came Saturday morning.

    But the biggest impact may be down ballot, where Republicans are starting to realize that the party’s embrace of Ryan and, thus, his Medicare-altering budget may drag down House and Senate candidates. In the days since the Ryan pick, some GOP candidates have already tried to distance themselves from Ryan’s plan. […]

  41. Sam The Sham says:

    @Ha Ha Ha,

    Nobody is interested in your long posts that are lifted, in their entirety, from left wing sources. I know it might tax your limited abilities to actually form your OWN thoughts and put them down here in written form, but hope springs eternal.

  42. Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    Ryan voted for the Bush stimulus, along with the Bush tax cuts, the Bush wars, the Bush security spending binge, the Bush prescription drug benefit, the Bush highway bill that included the Bridge to Nowhere, and the Bush bank bailout.

    Fiscal conservatism!