the most important election of your lifetime: 2012 american general election thread

why would you release this information on a friday night/saturday morning anyway

No, it won't be tabloidish like with Palin (xpost), but they will go after Ryan's budget furiously--I think they've been hoping for him, but be careful, etc.

Gotta think Ryan is a poor choice. His budget plans didn't stand up to any scrutiny.

At an Atlas Society meeting celebrating Ayn Rand's life in 2005, Ryan said that "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", and "I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are. It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff."

Yeah he's been running away from that for a while now. Amusingly.

it's comparable to the palin pick in that it's wasted trying to 'win the base' that by any means should be his at this point. you can sorta see future gop presidential noms going down this exact same path.

He's going to win over "the people" with "his ideas." That's how politics works in the abstract, but I'm not sure guys like Ryan understand how it works IRL. I mean, maybe Romney/Ryan would be this magical triumph of the twin robots, but probably not.

the right-wing base hungers for attack dogs but the republican party keeps giving them robo boy scouts

Where's that old Nixon/Agnew/Dole spirit when you really need it.

i think we expect a kind of bullshit-smiling-politician image from our presidents in last couple decades that maybe precludes srsly explicit vicious candidates from holding the office

Not that they don't have a few of those people just biding their time right now, if only Mitt had the courage to go spectacularly and suicidally bold.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/files/2011/12/newt-gingrich.jpg http://www.nypost.com/rw/nypost/2011/04/20/pagesix/photos_stories/donald_trump--300x300.jpg http://ezkool.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/michelebachmannteaparty-300x300.jpg

what's weird is that i keep seeing ppl (chait, sullivan, weigel, etc) referring to paul ryan as a bold, exciting choice, not another "incredibly boring white guy." that can't be right tho -- ryan seems ibwg to me? i can't imagine any undecideds are going to change their minds bc he's on the ticket, or that any republicans are going to suddenly be motivated to go vote. i mean, look at the guy

http://paulryan.house.gov/uploadedphotos/highresolution/7231cf6a-99da-435f-a0dd-fb50946f65fa.jpg

destined to be an extra credit question on AP American Politics in 2065

Any chances of it being McConnell?

http://images.buddytv.com/articles/gabe-the-office.JPG

what's weird is that i keep seeing ppl (chait, sullivan, weigel, etc) referring to paul ryan as a bold, exciting choice

Nerds think it's bold and exciting to put a nerd on the ticket.

(If Romney does it, I predict towel-snapping and swirlies for Ryan.)

I think Ryan's supposed boldness is partly a function of his story--the guy in the wilderness who took on Obama early in 2009, when Republican morale was not great--and partly by default, which becomes clear when you listen to Pawlenty or Portman for 30 seconds.

when defining nerdiness, real nerds draw the line at Ayn Rand freaks. they have standards, you know.

he's an ideas man and true conservative genius that will single handedly change the dynamic of the race when he throttles his dim dem opponent in the debates. yknow, like newt.

but Newt's secret weapon was his living freak show schtick. that's what gives him star-power, not his "ideas" (such as they were).

Paul Ryan, OTOH, has the star-power of a rock.

I really am surprised that they've decided to do this before the Olympics are over. They're clearly trying to put last week behind them as quickly as possible, but why wouldn't they wait at least until Monday?

no no newt (until very recently maybe - the moon base seems to have maybe been a tipping point finally) was actually taken seriously as an 'intellectual' and even republicans i knew who hated newt relished the idea of him 'destroying' obama in the debates. ryan has this same overrated serious ideas man rep (nevermind his ideas being as batshit and as full of shit - in 2000 he was arguing how clinton's balancing the budget had put america in peril) minus the personal foibles and ego of newt but also w/ 10% of the charisma. they've nominated the al gore to newt's clinton. and this was the bold choice. i do know that when ryan gave the rebuttal to the sotu i didn't feel any dread at the prospect of facing this guy, he seemed very much the kind of weasel that can go far in the house but would be out of his depth at any level above that.

I just have to all things being equal congratulate Harry Reird, Romney is maybe an easy target but he brought him down w one shot, he owned him on his lunch break my lord

thats some mormon on Mormon crime, avert yr eyes children

he's an ideas man and true conservative genius that will single handedly change the dynamic of the race when he throttles his dim dem opponent in the debates. yknow, like newt.

gotta admit what surprises me is that ryan would risk his chance to be a lifer like newt by potentially flaming out palin-style

He might be entertaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHE5BIP2-D8

yeah i can see how GOP folks think he has a Mr. Smith Goes To Washington But Smart vibe

out of curiosity, are there any cases where a president was elected because people were jazzed up by their VP selection?

Ryan would be a horrible choice imho in every way except covering mitts ass against conservative pundits, and tbf that won't even work

this is a p good summery of the thinking that basically boils down to the vp nom can move the needle a lil bit in his home state maybe aka doesn't matter much xp http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/how-romneys-pick-of-a-running-mate-could-sway-the-outcome

and that piece notes ryan is actually one of the less popular options in terms of home state advantage

exactly

It just might work.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/ryan-1.jpg http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/smith.jpg

at the very least it probably keeps them bringing in $$$ and getting to the convention without party mutiny

http://www.wolfgnards.com/media/blogs/photos/celebrities/Eddie-Munster.jpg

I repeat Harry Reid is a mfn gangster http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/11/business/in-the-superrich-clues-to-romneys-tax-returns-common-sense.html

cant someone just leak romeys returns idgi

if I don't get to see these things, at this point, ffs

Ryan advocated letting the country default during the debt ceiling fight.

Just realized Romney will never stop running for president. When he loses this year make a ten-thousand dollar bet he'll be back in 2016, Nixon style.

I don't completely believe that but I think it's a possibility.

the gop will have nothing to do w him tho

I mean they already hate him just image when he loses to nobama to bam

as far as I can tell no human being has ever liked mitt romney, not even for a moment

his dog maybe liked him at one point, which is prob why he put him on the roof

loooooooool current lead photo on nytimes.com

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/04/03/us/politics/0403romney/0403romney-blog480.jpg

http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/ap_mitt_romney_paul_Ryan_sub_sandwich_thg_120403_wg.jpg

potato chips crunchy potatoy congratulations

"how about those submarine sandwiches? I love lunches."

lool

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/11/paul-ryan-will-be-mitt-romneys-vice-presidential-pick-heres-seven-thoughts-on-what-that-means

mostly I think it's funny that ezra klein felt it nessisary to post abt this in the middle of the night, bloggers they are just like us, I wonder if he is drunk, this is a v good point tho, until the last line at least

5. It’s worth recalling how Ryan became a semi-household name. It wasn’t a Republican strategy to put him forward. As Ryan Lizza recounts in his New Yorker profile of Ryan, it was a Democratic strategy to put Ryan forward. Ryan, he writes, “was caught between the demands of the Republican leaders, who wanted nothing to do with his Roadmap, and his own belief that the Party had to offer a sweeping alternative vision to Obama’s. Ryan soon had an unlikely ally, in Obama himself.” While Republicans were trying to keep Ryan quiet, the Obama administration was trying to make him famous. They saw his plans as the clearest distillation of the GOP’s governing philosophy — and they thought it would drive voters towards the Democrats. We’ll know in November whether that was a genius strategy or an epic miscalculation.