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Greetings from America’s Heartland, or more specifically, from Java Joe’s in Des Moines, Iowa. As Ryan has already reported (and as officially confirmed by the Romney campaign a few minutes ago), Mitt Romney has bypassed more vanilla options to choose Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running-mate.
This decision is one of those rare moments in a polarized political environment where activists on both sides of the barricades will join in lusty, uninhibited cheers. For movement conservatives, Ryan is everything Romney isn’t: a loud-and-proud ideologue whose budget proposals have become the great symbol of the long-suppressed desire on the Right to unravel the New Deal/Great Society legacy and institute a significantly more regressive federal tax system. He’s also a down-the-line cultural conservative. It’s not every politician—much less one purported to be a serious intellectual—who can claim both Randian glorification of selfishness and conservative Catholic social thinking as major influences, but that’s what makes Ryan the most appropriate avatar of contemporary conservative politics.
For progressives, the choice of Ryan makes the task of exposing Mitt Romney’s agenda for the future of the country—already mortgaged to the conservative movement as the price of his nomination—vastly easier. The choice of a running-mate is often described as the “first presidential decision” of any party nominee. By picking Ryan, Romney has finally forfeited any opportunity to pose as a technocratic crypto-moderate who is a safe alternative for voters disappointed by life under the Obama administration. All along, Obama’s reelection has depended largely on his ability to make November 6 a clear and dramatic choice between two future courses for the country rather than a referendum on the status quo. The Romney-Ryan ticket makes a “choice election” unavoidable.
So the remainder of this election cycle has gotten significantly more interesting. It’s game on, for real.
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Mark-NC on August 11, 2012 9:27 AM:
I enjoyed rubbing this into my brother's face a few weeks ago. He is a hard-core Christian Republican who spent 10+ years overseas as a missionary.
I pointed out that his politics were the polar opposite of his religion. I drubbed him with the reality that Republicans were all about the 1% while being against anything, anywhere, that helps anybody.
Now with Ryan, I get to enjoy the stunning hypocrisy of watching him vote exactly as I stated (Ryan) AND for a Mormon.
I really have problems believing he is a real Christian - sad to say! He simply ignores everything Jesus taught.
wab on August 11, 2012 9:35 AM:
It is interesting that this election will not be a referendum on Barack Obama. It will not be a referendum on George W. Bush. It will instead be a referendum on Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Republicans want to turn the clock that far back. Well, some of them want to turn the clock back even further, to 1860, but that is another matter.
RepublicanPointOfView on August 11, 2012 9:35 AM:
@Mark-NC...
You forget the parable that Jesus taught that "It is easier for a camel to fit thru the eye of a needle than for a poor man to go to heaven".
It is a great selection and now we have our 'Dream Team'. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will stand up for the 1/10th of 1% who have been so maligned by the democrat mouthpieces of the MSM.
Together, they will fight to uphold our mottos of:
- More is never enough!
- I've got mine, f*ck you!
bo on August 11, 2012 9:38 AM:
Well, now The MittWit has his very own "junk-yard dog" -- dictated to him no doubt by the GOP leadership and the teabaggery. The Boy Math-Whiz Ryan will prove as disastrous to Mittens as a certain dim-witted half-term governor of Alaska did for McCain.
The Ryan budget will become the new lightning rod for sh*t here. Mittens won't have to worry about releasing more tax returns or defending his dubious Bain background. No, folks. There are much bigger fish to fry here!
This election race should be over and decided by early October for sure. Willard will now have a runningmate equally capable of sticking his foot in his mouth. These two magpies will be falling all over each other responding to their collective missteps, misstatements, flip-flops and 19th century economic and social policies. They're going to be a great Mutt and Jeff comedy team.
DAY on August 11, 2012 9:40 AM:
In a Sane World the press would point out the inconsistencies, the rampant hypocrisy, the economic disasters of the Romney-Ryan ticket.
As many have pointed out, we do NOT live in a Same World.
Peter C on August 11, 2012 9:42 AM:
This is 'doubling down'. As such, it is a VERY Republican thing to do. It's the sort of behavior which has caused the gridlock for the past four years. It's the sort of behavior that caused the financial meltdown - the idea that if a little risk (Lehman Brothers would never fail) is a good thing, then a lot of risk is a great thing. It is the sort of behavior that got us into the Iraq War - the idea that little steps were not good enough and invasion was needed. It is what Bain Capital was all about - load companies with debt so they either win big or lose big; big 'management fees' protect you and others are on the hook when things go wrong due to 'unforeseen events'. "You lost your life's savings? You lost your job? You lost your healthcare coverage? Sorry! That's life! NEXT!"
"Try it!" "Trust us!" "What could go wrong???" They say.
Plenty could. Plenty did earlier in this century. Only the face in the front has changed.
researcher on August 11, 2012 9:53 AM:
It is orwellian listening to Paul Ryan in Norfolk, introduced by Mitt R-Money as "appealing to the better angels of the Republican Party."
WHAT better angels!?
Mitt Romney is on record as saying, “I’m not concerned about the very poor.”
Paul Ryan's budget supports Romney’s enormous arrogance.
....tax cuts that disproportionately provide to the rich and have severe, diabolical spending cuts that overwhelmingly hurt the poor, and our seniors.
Why? Paul Ryan has said that too many Americans are receiving more from the government than they pay in taxes--so he is going to gut and eliminate popular programs to ensure the rich a six figure cut in takes.
As I said earlier, Paul Ryan took advantage of federal government programs such as social security from high school on, and he puts a face to the word hypocritical.
As Chris Hayes says, Romeny introduces Paul Ryan by attacking President on Medicare--meanwhile,
ROMNEY AND RYAN PLAN TO END MEDICARE.
ORWELLIAN!!!!!!!
researcher on August 11, 2012 9:55 AM:
6 figure cut in taxes, I mean!
James M on August 11, 2012 10:17 AM:
I made a comment (last week I think) that Mr. Ryan had a zero chance of getting the VP nomination. Obviously I was wrong!
However, I am still convinced that the choice of Mr. Ryan doesn't make sense from any normal electoral calculus, so I am guessing this is a 'Hail Mary pass' (Rev. Al Sharpton used the same term on his MSNBC program.). It is, in my opinion, a huge strategic blunder. Mr. Romney should have have nominated one of the 'boring' choices (Mr. Pawlenty or Mr. Portman), tried to stay close, and hope for some disaster (EU meltdown, major domestic terrorist attack, Israel Iran strike, etc.) before the election to give him a chance for a comeback.
As it is, he may have fired up his base, but he has almost certainly hurt his chances with independent and senior voters. Although Mr. Ryan is certainly a more credible candidate than Ms. Palin, the degree of desperation behind the choice is similar. If BO has any real genius, it seems to be his uncanny ability to get his electoral opponents to self-destruct!
Peter C on August 11, 2012 10:23 AM:
I keep waiting for the 'just kidding!' announcement. But, it never came with the Palin announcement 4 years ago ...
BillFromPA on August 11, 2012 10:24 AM:
Ryan will not add one voter to the ticket who wouldn't have voted for Willard already. Romney's base is a small number who actually think he has something good to offer and the rest, a nativist, racist bunch of knuckle-draggers who will vote for almost anybody against Obama. That pool will now shrink a little as older, middle class whites, needed by Romney, will now have to choose between throwing the n****r out or throwing their safety net out. Many will choose the former, but Romney will lose too many of the latter.
Mark-NC on August 11, 2012 10:31 AM:
For RepublicanPointOfView on August 11, 2012 9:35 AM:
Funny - I've used that exact same "Biblical phrase" about the camel myself.
However, my favorite is the one about Jesus in the temple (you have to go to the Republican Bible edited by Fox News to get the "correct" version). Jesus went to the temple and discovered lots of people praying. They were dirty and had left their Gucci shoes to disrepair. He threw them out of His Father's house. BUT, outside, Jesus saw bankers and merchants without a home and asked them to come inside. Jesus declared that they should go forth and make money, money, money, money, money - for it is the highest calling of all to get rich, rich, rich. AND, if those losers outside want to pray in His Father's house - charge them rent, no DOUBLE rent (gotta get rich to please the Lord)!
bdop4 on August 11, 2012 10:48 AM:
As Romney stands for nothing (and everything), his candidacy has created a huge political vacuum for the GOP. Ryan (and everything he stands for) has now filled that vacuum and Romney has essentially been cloned into an older version of Ryan.
For Matrix fans: Ryan is like Agent Smith, and Romney is his first victim. Hopefully, Ryan will infect the rest of the party down ticket with his toxic policies. Dems should make all their opponents declare their positions in relation to Ryan's "Roadmap."
smartalek on August 11, 2012 11:37 AM:
The Ryan choice does make it utterly undeniable that "Republican" and "hypocrite" are now perfect synonyms -- Ryan's an even better exemplar of that fundamental (in every sense) reality than my previous ATF-Publican (who is also my favorite oxymoron of all time), "Justice Clarence Thomas."
Cranky Observer on August 11, 2012 12:02 PM:
I'm curious how all this Ryan euphoria fits in with Barack Obama's stated desire to cut a "grand bargain" with Boehner and McConnell over "entitlements reform" - code language for Bowles-designed deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare?
Cranky
tack, torfes - 7th try
SecularAnimist on August 11, 2012 12:09 PM:
Ed wrote: "The choice of a running-mate is often described as the 'first presidential decision' of any party nominee."
So Romney's first presidential decision was to pick a bought-and-paid-for Koch Brothers stooge for his VP.
This election is pretty simple, really: it's the fossil fuel corporations against everyone else.
TCinLA on August 11, 2012 12:21 PM:
"And now I'd like to introduce you to the next President of the United States - Paul Ryan!"
I always love how Willard the Wanker gaffes himself into telling the truth. This is certainly what the Ryan-Romney Administration would be like.
N.Wells on August 11, 2012 12:32 PM:
My guess is that Ryan is going to be a good campaigner who will swing R doubters firmly into line, but will also quickly polarize undecideds and centrists out of their indecision (probably in both directions). I'm thinking that this should quieten the Ron Paul supporters and non-Romney-favoring tea partiers, so I'm wondering if Romney just staved off considerable embarrassments from weak support and perhaps even some complaining at the Republican convention.
However, my guess is that even a nice convention bump for Romney couldn't last through a solid Ryan-budget-slamming speech by either Clinton or Biden at the Democratic convention, let alone a whole convention screaming out it.
So, will Ryan release a bunch of his tax returns? If he does, Romney looks bad, but if he doesn't, they will both look awful. (By comparison, Biden and Cheney both released 10 years' worth of returns while running for V.P.) Also, I'm now really looking forward to the V.P. debates.
N.Wells on August 11, 2012 12:34 PM:
crap - "screaming about it"
beejeez on August 11, 2012 1:13 PM:
I think Ed's dead wrong about how much Ryan will help Romney. Ryan's a shrewd operator, a bona-fide intellectual that can give Romneynomics enough of a veneer of plausibility to appeal to undecideds. He'll be a formidable attack dog, and Joe Biden will need to bring his A-game to out-debate him. He has no obvious personal skeletons, and he's a master not only of bald-faced lying, but of executing under liberal criticism the hurt puppy dog look that seems to touch a chord in the GOP base. I'm scared to death of the twerp.
exlibra on August 11, 2012 1:18 PM:
Rand (Ryan's guiding light), Ryan and Romney -- they've got a ticket to ride! Rah, rah, rah!
Being a resident of Virginia, I get additional pleasure from seeing Li'l Bobby McD, who also had some VP hopes, doubtless cranked up by the announcement being made in Norfolk, get a kick in the teeth instead.
exlibra on August 11, 2012 1:21 PM:
Oh, and the nuns will have them for lunch. Here they were, criticizing R-money for supporting Ryan's unchristian budget and asking him (Raw Money) to come and take a look at real life... and that's his answer?
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Rick B on August 12, 2012 1:55 AM:
@James M -- If you are looking at "normal electoral calculus" as being s series of decisions consistent with some overarching vision or strategy of where the candidate is going to go, you are right. Choosing Ryan is completely inconsistent with Mitt's entire anti-Obama campaign up until now. Instead of being consistent with the prior Romney strategy the forced choice of Ryan is a hostile takeover of the Romney campaign by the radical Republican Right wing.
The core nature of Romney's campaign must change from now on. Once again, Romney is a weather vane, not a strategic planner or a leader. A leader would have gotten the right wing to support him when he locked up the nomination. A strategic planner would not be such an obvious weather vane tacking to every breeze that comes along.
The choice of Ryan shows that Romney is so desperate to become President - and so clearly understands that he is failing to get there - that he will become Norquist's "President with enough digits to sign the bills the radical right hands him." He might ultimately do as Nixon did if he fails too much, resign and allow the Veep to become President. Ryan has more character and self-certainty than Romney. Not morality or good sense, but more character and self-certainty.