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The effort to make Paul Ryan a non-threatening, middle-of-the-road politician is apparently underway. Exhibit A is this morning’s Politico offering, “5 keys to understanding Paul Ryan.”
After “years of observing Ryan in action,” Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan have learned that he’s ambitious (“a man in a hurry”), he’s a politician (“virtually all of Ryan’s professional experience is in Washington”), he’s “misunderstood,” he’s “an island” and he tends to vote Republican.
How illuminating! At least four of the five (Ryan’s loner tendencies the exception) describe every last Republican in Washington, and even a few Blue Dog Democrats.
Now, I have not spent as much time observing Paul Ryan in his native habitat, but I’m quite sure another thing that makes him tick, as I alluded to earlier, is a longtime opposition to gay rights. This isn’t something Ryan puts at the top of his resume, of course — it would cut against his image as an intellectual and a wonk — but the evidence is stark.
Via the National Organization for Marriage, here’s a taste of how Paul Ryan feels about gays:
“Voted for a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as the union between one man and one woman.”Voted against repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 2011.
Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman.
Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Supported the marriage amendment in Wisconsin in 2006.
In a crucial way these positions are of a piece with Ryan’s desire to, as Matthew Yglesias put it so well, “ax programs aimed at benefiting poor people.” They reveal a guy who does not hesitate — and is in fact eager — to put a boot on the neck of a large swath of Americans. Isn’t this a “key” to understanding the man?
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kevo on August 12, 2012 11:23 AM:
Just look at Mr. Ryan's adult resume, and one will find a penchant for Mr. Ryan to coerce government to work on behave of Mr. Ryan, while Mr. Ryan actively uses Mr. Ryan's position in government to deny the benefits to American citizens Mr. Ryan reaps from government!
Go figure, moron, low-information voter!
A vote for the Republican brand is a vote against the interests of the 99%! In November, Occupy the Ballot Booth! -Kevo
ClearEye on August 12, 2012 11:32 AM:
The sober CBO assessment of the Ryan Budget is here: http://1.usa.gov/GCknGc
NB:
> Chairman Ryan and staff had CBO ''assume'' revenues increase from 15.5% to 19% of GDP. That's a $500 billion/year tax increase.
> Spending priorities are: cut support for seniors, children, the sick, the poor, the hungry and education while increasing spending for defense.
> With all that, does not achieve budget balance until 2040
Hedda Peraz on August 12, 2012 11:37 AM:
Elon, darlin'- bless your heart, but there is nothing to "understand" about l'il Pauly!
He's our very own Ronnie Reagan Redux, 21st Century incarnation!
Now, if he were only a wee bit taller. . .
John on August 12, 2012 11:38 AM:
How do Ryan's positions on gay rights distinguish him from any other Republican politician? You criticize Politico from basically offering things that are true of all Republican politicians, and then offer as an alternative another thing that is true of all Republican politicians.
Besides these votes, can you provide any evidence that Ryan is particularly anti-Gay for a Republican? He doesn't really seem like a Rick Santorum style culture warrior
SteveT on August 12, 2012 11:42 AM:
Someone elsewhere compared Ryan to Voldemort. But that is way off base.
Voldemort constantly displays his contempt for everyone -- "I deserve to rule because I'm better than you worms!" Just like Mitt Romney.
Paul Ryan is able to pull off an "Aw shucks, I'm just an ordinary guy" personna, even while he's working to throw widows and orphans out into the cold. It's the kind of thing that the inside-the-beltway, donuts-with-sprinkles-gifting pundit eat up with a spoon in each hand.
That's what makes him so dangerous.
g on August 12, 2012 11:43 AM:
He's our very own Ronnie Reagan Redux
Paul Ryan, fortunately for us, lacks Reagan's charm and charisma. He may be Ronnie Redux, but he is a smug bastard.
Mimikatz on August 12, 2012 11:45 AM:
Looks like this is the bully ticket. Whether they can make enough people believe they aren't the target, that the target is those other people, is what remains to be seen.
c u n d gulag on August 12, 2012 11:46 AM:
It's the following day, and I still don't see how making Ryan his VP choice (or, having him chosen for Mitt) helps Romney with anyone except the base.
And those people are already united in their hatred for President Obama, and motivated to get him out, no matter who was at the top of the Republican ticket. That's what the Republican Party has been doing for the past 4 years - and the only thing, they've been doing, is motivating their base. When they haven't been demonizing the President, they've been trying to impede him in and and every way that they can - trying to influence the perception of the few real Independent's and Moderates out there.
Ryan adds nothing on foreign policy - he's a hawk for Israel, but which Republican isn't? Outside of that, he brings nothing to the table.
Ryan doesn't bring in any swing states - though he may help in WI.
But the question is, 'who does he help?' Does being a 'favorite son' in that state help Republicans with moderates, or do they see him a tied to the hip with Scott Walker?
And on the economy, his "Privatizing Ryan Plan" is a potential lethal albatross around his and Mitt's hopes in states like FL and PA - which explains the voter suppression effort there, which not must be accelerated to compensate for more senior citizens either staying home, or voting for Obama.
Maybe I'm missing something, but adding Ryan to the ticket seems to have aimed at the "true believers," who were already "true believers."
Romney/Ryan, is actually Ryan/Romney, or, as Krugman put it - Galt/Gekko, and not Gekko/Galt.
How is a Presidential candidate who is best known for closing factories, outsourcing jobs, and killing pensions, better served by a Vice Presidential candidate who wants to Privatize Social Security and turn Medicare into a voucher system.
One guy affected where you worked, the other's going to affect how and where you retire.
To me, that's not a winner.
But, then, stranger things have happened - George W. Bush being successfully sold as a "Compassionate Conservative," a contradiction in terms if there ever was one, to gullible voters, comes immediately to mind.
I just don't see Ryan as making Mitt an easier to sale to those who aren't already part of the 27%
OKDem on August 12, 2012 11:52 AM:
For a Wisconsinite Ryan has gone Dixie native.
His wife is the daughter of a American Party [George Wallace] gubernatorial candidate from a Southwest OK Republican family [the Littles].
His dogs are named Boomer and Sooner. Ryan hunts and noodles [LOL!] with his wife's cousin Dan Boren [Blue Dog, OK]. Dan Boren's mother was a Little.
Someone on another blog said when Ryan loses he will just go somewhere Red friendly and take a retiring Senator's seat. Both Inhofe and Coburn will be retiring in the next 4 years.
http://newsok.com/rep.-paul-ryan-mitt-romneys-running-mate-has-strong-oklahoma-ties/article/3700257
Al B Tross on August 12, 2012 12:01 PM:
To me it's Bush-Cheney 2,
Romney is the bubble-boy business idiot, incapable of thought on his own, and Ryan is the cold, calculated hatchet man, more than willing to do "whatever it takes" to get things done.
The commonality between them, is their Authoritarian mentality toward policy, and due process. Romney thinks he can eliminate the ACA overnite, without due process, and Ryan desires to punish those he has deemed unworthy, the poor, the sick, the elderly, minorities...
Evil men hiding in plain sight.
TCinLA on August 12, 2012 12:07 PM:
Ah, the right wing disinformation project "Politico" is busy working on the assignment from their owner to turn Priviatizing Ryan into an approximation of a human being. Hard to do when his most prominent Homo Sap characteristic, the low forehead due to the lack of frontal lobes, is so obvious.
The rest of Corporate Newspeak also sees their marching order. I don't know if it was CBS or NBC but some airheaded bimbo Faux Snooze wannabee was busy going down on Newt Gingrich. After the ass-kicking he got from Anderson Cooper this week, this was just pathetic - that's why I don't know what show it was, I looked, the barf reflex started and I switched channels fast.
It's amazing how these otherwise-unemployable scum-sucking morons get WORSE by the week!
Daniel Kim on August 12, 2012 12:17 PM:
Somehow, it must be said:
Paul Ryan's father, grandfather and great-grandfather each died at the age of 60, according to the New Yorker article recently published.
Get it? 60/60/60? Y'know 666?
The Beast!
PEA on August 12, 2012 12:35 PM:
LA Times, 8.12.12:
Refers to him as "affable" yet later says this:
A man "whose younger brother was friends with Ryan said neighborhood kids called Ryan "Petey" (after the Little Rascals dog with the black circle around his eye) because he was always getting into schoolyard tiffs."
Maybe that's why Robme picked him.
Leopold Von Ranke on August 12, 2012 12:56 PM:
Intellectual? From what I've read he couldn't even get into graduate school. I have an airedale that could perform that feat. Wouldn't make it through the first semester ("woof" is not an answer), but the educational institution would at least get the student loan money.
Josef K on August 12, 2012 1:13 PM:
Okay, I'm officially embarrassed to have to admit I grew up in Wisconsin and still have family there.
Joel on August 12, 2012 1:20 PM:
"Romney/Ryan, is actually Ryan/Romney, or, as Krugman put it - Galt/Gekko, and not Gekko/Galt."
Or as one wag put it over at Kevin's site:
Vulture/Voucher 2012
castanea on August 12, 2012 1:51 PM:
In any sane country in which the media actually reported hard news and didn't slobber at the feet of the powerful in hopes of getting a table scrap or two, Rmoney/Ryan would have been exposed as a laughingstock.
What are the odds on Ryan releasing his tax returns? That's what this inquiring mind wants to know.
dricey on August 12, 2012 1:51 PM:
The DC Beltway Bozos have had a boy crush on Ryan for a couple of years now, and haven't even tried to hide the fact. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that that obscene little presstitute David Gregory has a Justin Bieber-style wall poster of Ryan up in his office, autographed by Congressman Catfood himself and all warped and wrinkly from Gregory smooching it when the door's closed.
Anyway, expect more of this obsequious Ryan-worship over the next three months. We've all talked a lot about how this was a sop to the right wing base, but it was at least as big a sop to the Village Idiots of the DC "news" media.
golack on August 12, 2012 2:36 PM:
oh, oh, oh, new movie title, "Saving Privatizing Ryan"
bobby on August 12, 2012 3:05 PM:
Instead of referring to Romney/Ryan vouchers, let's call them health stamps.
Anonymous on August 12, 2012 10:11 PM:
Another problem about Ryan (purely for popularity).
Beyond his youthful good looks with pretty blue eyes, he is as boring as Romney.
I was reading the politico article and got bored just reading it.
People were bored with John Kerry who sounded far more articulate and intelligent and confident than Bush in the debate.
Sure, Ryan probably will "win" the debate over Joe Biden, but Biden is so much more accessible "working class regular guy" and compassionate than Ryan is.
Biden's son was in Iraq. He lost his first wife and some of his kids but overcame to win the senate seat.
at least that's the impression i get.
Sometimes it's better to "lose" in order to win in the end.
Bugboy on August 13, 2012 7:27 AM:
Ryan's backers think the rubes will fall for him like they fell for Reagan, but Reagan knew how to present himself after being an actor in his previous career. The difference is Reagan HAD some cred with a career in Hollywood, and politics on the state level. I'm sorry, but Ryan's driving an Oscar Meyer truck in college is just not that compelling of a story. Today's GOP plays at that idolatry of a man they wish they could be.
Ryan can look genuine but can he act it? I doubt it. Palin couldn't think on her feet, nor could she keep her mouth shut when it counted. Both Mr. and Mrs. Romney have distinct problems communicating their special brand of elitism. The election is over, they are looking to 2016 for Ryan if you ask me.
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ArchTeryx on August 13, 2012 9:19 AM:
And the final deathblow to the CAPTCHA around here - it is no longer even slowing down the spambots.
Dredd on August 13, 2012 9:44 AM:
Ryan cannot be understood without understanding Ayn Rand:
In a 2005 speech to a group of Rand devotees called the Atlas Society, Ryan said that Rand was required reading for his office staff and interns. “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” he told the group.
(Ayn Rand: Patron Saint of The Plutocracy).
Epicurus on August 13, 2012 11:04 AM:
I'll just leave this here...
-- There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/ephemera-2009-7.html
Anonymous on August 13, 2012 11:13 AM:
Isn't it funny that it is Obama and Biden that grew up from the less than average household income with student loans, not the Romney and Ryan who were born into wealthy families?
i mean, the two men achieved American dream (though i think it's universal in any industrial economy) from humble origins. The other two never experienced any difficulties with loans, unemployment, debts or discrimination. Yet they say they know that the poor don't need social programs.
MaCain experienced a war and torture. Not Biden or Obama.
But what did Romney and Ryan ever do that was so hard?
i mean i respect that they have worked hard, longer hours than average Americans and risked their careers into competitive fields. but they also are given more than average resources and opportunities to get to work to begin with.
What do unemployed, uneducated young people have to do to "work hard" when they can't afford education or get a job because of lack of education??
interview hard? many of them already volunteer or work free as interns to built their resumes to get employed just to get less than $30,000 a year.
Many enlisted soldiers became unemployed yet they say if you don't have money, you just need to work hard. Do anyone think that ex soldiers are lazy?