esrosedotblog

RYAN

Why are these men laughing?

Not a great surprise.

I think that we just may have won the election.

This is very risky for Romney but he needs a change up.

There is a lot of blather about it.

I just think that Ryan is way to right. I would say to the right of Romney but we don't really know where the Mitter stands on anything.

Ryan is definitive.

Joe Biden says he is a nice guy and I think he is.

He is OK on gay issues. He is an ardent Randian. Ayn Rand.

I knew one of these believers many years ago. Unyielding.

The Ryan plan which is now Mitt's whether he wants it to be or not, steps on three third rails. Social Security, Medicare and middle class taxes.

Blah blah.

He is inexperienced. He is raw.

I did used to say that Obama was callow. Ryan is callow.

But he is the only show in town. The other possibilities were boring and of no help to Romney at all. I think that for the GOP this is the only viable choice. But it is not a winner.

KEVIN DRUM.......Overall, I think Democrats got the better of things today. They can attack Ryan's budget proposals, they can mock his jejune Ayn Rand fixation, and they can credibly start demanding that Romney and Ryan put more flesh on their policy proposals. The tea party crowd thinks this is great because they're convinced that Middle America will really and truly come to love their scorched-earth approach to the federal government if only someone is brave enough to stand up and really sell it. This is a fantasy, and smart Republicans like Romney know it, which is why he's so assiduously avoided policy specifics. But having Ryan on the ticket is going to make it harder to keep the fever-eyed contingent under control.

In any case, I'll repeat what I said this morning: Ryan's just the VP. He presents plenty of opportunities for attack, but he won't radically change the course of the campaign. Liberal firepower should remain mostly trained on Romney. He's the guy that voters care about, not Ryan.

Time will tell. We will have to work as hard.

It took less than an hour before I got a text message from the Obamas about it. A URL to go to. They were ready for this. There is even an ad with ominous music.

Interesting times.

Orion and Ryan on the same day.

Labels: Romney