The American Spectator : Shout It Out Loud

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Shout It Out Loud

By Robert Stacy McCain on 8.13.12 @ 6:12AM

Romney’s bold choice has Republicans ready to rock.

Rock music pounded out of the speakers and the waiting crowd was at one point treated to back-to-back songs by Kiss, first “Detroit Rock City” and then “Shout It Out Loud.” However, the crowd gathered on a hot Saturday afternoon inside the Harris Pavilion in Manassas, Virginia, wasn’t there for a concert. They were awaiting the arrival of the new-minted Republican presidential ticket, and the excitement generated by Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate was hard to miss as thousands crowded into downtown Manassas for the event.

How big was the crowd? Huge. Enormous. Gigantic. It was difficult to get an estimate because the audience attending the rally overflowed the pavilion (which has an official capacity of 1,000) and filled the surrounding plaza. Lines to get into the venue circled around several blocks and, when Romney and Ryan arrived, there were still hundreds waiting to get through the metal detectors. Susan Ferrechio of the Washington Examiner, who rode into town on the press bus, shot a photo of the crowd lining the streets of Manassas that prompted the paper’s editorial page editor Mark Tapscott to muse that the polls must be wrong: “How to explain such crowds if Obama is leading in Virginia, one of the key swing states?”

Indeed, it is hard to reconcile Saturday’s enthusiastic Republican turnout for the Romney-Ryan tour of Virginia with polls showing President Obama ahead in the Old Dominion by 3.2 points in the Real Clear Politics average. The prosperous Northern Virginia suburbs of D.C. are the crucial “swing” section of the Commonwealth, and a strong GOP wave in the 2009-2010 elections — electing Bob McDonnell governor and defeating three incumbent congressional Democrats — would seem to indicate Virginia has returned to the Republican column. (See my July 16 report, “Battleground Virginia.”) Yet the Romney campaign can’t afford to take the state for granted, which probably explains why Romney announced his running mate pick in Norfolk at the beginning of a daylong bus trip across Virginia. When Romney and Ryan took the stage in Manassas for the last stop of the trip, CNN reporter Jim Acosta found himself shouting to be heard above the cheering thousands: “This is as loud as I have heard a Romney campaign rally,” Acosta told CNN anchor Deborah Feyerich. “This crowd is fired up.”

Clearly the crowd was excited by the choice of Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Budget Committee, whose detailed plan to balance the federal budget has made him something of a GOP rock star. Ryan is remarkably young. Now 42, Ryan was only a first- grader in 1976 when Kiss released the heavy-metal anthems played as warm-up music at the Manassas rally. His youth is viewed as a point in his favor by conservatives with bad memories of the 2008 mismatch between the vigorous young Obama and geriatric John McCain, who lost the under-30 vote by a 2-to-1 margin. “Paul Ryan is fresh, young, energetic, smart, courageous, and ready for prime time,” syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin exclaimed in endorsing Romney’s choice. Yet as Romney made sure to remind the Republican crowd in Manassas, Ryan’s youth doesn’t mean he’s inexperienced. “This is a man who learned leadership young because leadership is a function of character and courage,” Romney said of Ryan, a seven-term congressman. “As a young man, a high schooler, his dad died and he was forced to grow up quickly.”

Ryan came to Washington fresh out of college in 1992 and worked as a GOP congressional aide before returning to his native Wisconsin to win his own House seat in 1998. His acknowledged mastery of fiscal and economic policy earned him praise from the Weekly Standard as “the Republican Party’s intellectual leader.” That article by Bill Kristol and Stephen Hayes, urging Romney to make a “bold” choice in his VP pick, was part of a 10-day flurry of last-minute speculation that was ultimately revealed as unnecessary. Conservatives feared that Romney would go with a “safe” choice like Ohio Sen. Rob Portman or former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty although, according to campaign staffers, Romney actually decided Aug. 1 that Ryan would be his running mate.

The boldness of Romney’s choice surprised some, including the mysterious blogger Allahpundit at the popular conservative Hot Air site, who invoked a science fiction analogy: “It’s like watching C-3PO lead the raid on the Death Star.” (This comparison of Romney to C-3PO, the comically effete robot of the Star Wars film series, might dismay Democrats who have spent the past several weeks trying to convince voters that Romney is actually Darth Vader.) In choosing Ryan, Romney was seen as making a bid for Tea Party support while also signaling his intent to focus the fall campaign on the economic and fiscal issues that are Ryan’s speciality. Democrats and liberal pundits immediately began chattering about what a disastrous choice Romney had made. Obama adviser David Axelrod called Ryan’s views “extreme” and MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell declared that Ryan is “not a pick for suburban moms, not a pick for women.” Mitchell’s opinion was certainly not shared by the many suburban moms who turned out Saturday for the Romney-Ryan rally in Manassas. Female enthusiasm for the tall, dark, blue-eyed Irishman caused me to remark that Ryan’s Secret Service code name should be “Dreamy.”

Whether their enthusiasm was inspired by Ryan’s bold policies or his blue eyes, conservatives were encouraged by Romney’s choice. Ryan immediately showed himself willing to take the fight to Obama, telling the Manassas crowd that the president aspires to “a government-centered society with a government-run economy.” Obama’s policies are “not working,” Ryan said, and the president “is not going to be able to run for re-election on his record because it’s a terrible record.… He’s going to divide the country, to distract the country, to try and win this election by default.”

Ryan’s confrontational rhetoric reassured conservatives who have complained bitterly about what they see as John McCain’s failure to “get tough” with Obama during the 2008 campaign. Conservatives circulated online videos of Ryan’s previous confrontations with Obama, including one in which the Republican congressman denounced the president’s health-care plan as “full of gimmicks and smoke and mirrors.” Hillsdale College history Professor Paul Rahe hailed Romney’s choice of Ryan as a “declaration of war” on Obama. “There will be no evasion, no triangulation, no attempt to mask what is at stake in this election,” Rahe wrote. “Instead, Romney and Ryan will directly confront Barack Obama and call him to account for putting us on a ruinous course.”

Paul Ryan is clearly the kind of Republican who, as Ronald Reagan said, prefers bold colors to pale pastels. Ryan will not whisper the conservative message — he’ll shout it out loud. And judging from the reaction he’s gotten so far, Republicans are ready to rock.

About the Author

Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current). He blogs at The Other McCain.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (190) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Jack in Wi| 8.13.12 @ 6:28AM

If Romney's focus remains on the economy and domestic energy policy he should win the election. He should have a good chance of winning Wi. if he stops with all the warmongering talk. In fact he should have a very good chance to win Iowa, Michigan, Ohio. They all elected Republican governors in 2010. They also went to Obama in the last election. I think that they also have a chance in Illinois and Minnesota. Illinois is a basket case is a basket case where a conservative Republican came very close to winning in 2010. Minnesota had a close election and gay marraige is on the ballot there. It should push the state toward the Republicans because I think the ban on same sex marriage will win big. Romney would do well to stay away from the words Israel, Iran, bomb and war. Most of these states have a long tradition of looking askance at warmongers.

Jack in Wi| 8.13.12 @ 6:43AM

In fact Romney's main drop in the polls came because of his Neocon planned foreign trip. He looked like a fool banging his head against the Wailing Wall and kissing Netanyahu's rear end. He sounded like a warmonger to a country which is fed up with wars. Now I know Ryan has a similar background of listening to Neocon foreign policy advisors. This kind of foreign policy is never going to get the libertarian, young, women, and independent voters the ticket needs to win. It will throw away the terrific chance that they have to take a lot of the Mid West.

Ryan is a very attractive candidate. He is a young good looking Irish Catholic, with a nice looking young family. If they keep talking about the economy, and domestic energy production and stay away from Neocon foreign policy they can win. It is time to back to a realistic foreign policy and dump the Neocons once and for all. They jumped to Clinton in 1992, to Gore in 2000, and to Obama in 2008. They didn't back McCain, even though he backed their idiotic foreign policy all the way. The Neocons cost far more votes then the the money they bring in is worth. They are never right. Let them go back to the Democrats where they belong.

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 9:24AM

Jack, you're an anti-semitic crank.

Even when you're "happy" (such as it is) with Romney's choice of Paul Ryan, you can't miss an opportunity to say something disparaging about Jews and/or Israel, albeit in some cowardly, underhanded way.

I don't know why so many people on this board care who you're going to vote for; you're just one guy among millions of people in Wisconsin.

Want to waste your vote? Go ahead, who gives a damn?

You're a sick man.

Quartermaster| 8.13.12 @ 12:41PM

Sorry Doc, but Clint is quite correct about the Neocons. People are tired of such wars. The people have never been much for wars of policy or international power politics.

We can support Israel without being dragooned into such wars.

CJW| 8.13.12 @ 1:35PM

Q
Does Clint use "Jack inWi" as one of his names, along with Teflon, since your answer to Doc says "Clint?"

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 2:58PM

The working assumption among some members is that "Clint" is/was "Jack in Wi," although if true, it's more likely the other way around.

That's because Clint was such a brain-dead caricature of a Paul-Bot that it wasn't hard to think he was a fake persona.

Additionally, given "Clint's" general lack of brain-cells, it's unlikely that he could create a "Jack in Wi" persona, since for all his anti-semitic blather and raging paranoia, "Jack" can at least string two sentences together into a reasonably coherent - and bigoted - thought.

My opinion? They're different people...although "Clint" did disappear when the forum required a formal login procedure.

FYI..."Clint" did reappear last week, briefly, as "InfiniteLiberty."

CJW| 8.13.12 @ 3:11PM

I agree that somone uses "Clint" to post the crzay comments, and also uses other names. I saw Q's reply to Jack and thought Q might know.

Jack in Wi| 8.13.12 @ 4:10PM

Clint used links and cut and paste comments over and over again. He did a good job of it. I miss him. I don't even know how to put up links or how to cut and paste. I hung around here after he left because this site badly needs some intellectual heft and truth from a real conservative. About the only people left commenting here are flacks from Obama's and Romney's campaign and the usual Zionist shills who stink up every comment section on the internet. The worst of which is Dr. Wrong and Occam.

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 4:24PM

Jack, you're NOT a real Conservative.

You're an isolationist crank-case. In terms of intellect, you offer NOTHING to this board.

You're a one-dimensional, one-note thinker. Everything and anything in your mind is somehow inextricably linked to a Jewish plot, which you describe as being caused by "Neocons."

There's nothing new, original, or insightful about you.

Hate to burst the bubble of your fragile ego, but there it is...

Occam's Tool| 8.14.12 @ 10:48AM

Jack: you are a jihadist fellator, not a man. You are a maggot who supports sharia, not a Conservative. You are a traitor and a coward and a bag of scum. You have all the intellectual heft of an anencephalic.

Jack in Wi| 8.13.12 @ 12:42PM

Dr. Wrong: You want to destroy this ticket. The polling suggesst both here and in Israel that no-one wants another war. Romney will go down to a big defeat if he pushes anymore of the war talk. The Neocons lose far more votes then the bring. The backed Clinton in 1992 and 1996. They backed Gore in 2000 and they backed Obama in 2008. How long are we going to let this crazy gang of old Trotskyites run the foreign policy of the Republican party? Let them go back to the Democrats from whence they came. Romney needs the votes of libertarians, the young, women and independents. He won't get what he needs with more nonsense war talk.

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 2:53PM

Like I said, you're a crank...and you're absolutely FIXATED on "warmongering" and "Neocons," which is simply another way of saying "Jews."

Yeah...I want to "destroy this ticket." That makes sense...

I guess that's why I've been on record - for MONTHS - as saying I WILL support the GOP's nominee to defeat Obama.

Meanwhile, you've been whining and crying for months about how Romney will lose, how he's just another "warmongering Neocon," and how Obama was a shoe-in to win another 4 years.

So which is it, Jack..?

Were you wrong, or lying, or stupid...or all 3?

FYI, you anti-semitic windbag...Romney's trip to Israel was a success. Support for an ally does NOT imply the desire to go to war...except in your addled mind.

I guess you're not really listening (shock!), but 99% of what Romney talks about is THE ECONOMY.

Appleby| 8.13.12 @ 6:40AM

Ryan is a devout Catholic married to his original wife, with strong pro-life views. He will take the point on the War on Religion, which Romney has so far shied away from, not wanting to call attention to his Mormonism I suppose. I spoke to some of my family last night and they are supporters of Ryan.

Jack in Wi| 8.13.12 @ 6:48AM

I agree Appleby: Ryan can be a huge plus to the ticket. He got a huge crowd yesterday a few miles from where I live. Although he is my neighboring congressman I had never listened to him in a long speech. He is quite good. This ticket has to focus on one thing. It is all about the economy. The family values will sell themselves. The attacks on Obama and his radical abortion and homosexual marriage stands should come from the Pact funds.

CJW| 8.13.12 @ 9:22AM

Ok, Jack, who are you voting for?

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 9:25AM

Who cares?!?!

Wisconsin's electoral votes are NOT going to depend on "Jack the anti-semite's" choices on election day.

Jack in Wi| 8.13.12 @ 12:45PM

Wi. will never vote for a pro-war ticket and neither will most of the USA. Either Romney puts out a more realistic and sane foreign policy or he is toast in the Midwest.

CJW| 8.13.12 @ 1:36PM

Obama or Romney?

Jack in Wi| 8.13.12 @ 3:20PM

I voted for the Republican ticket in 12 straight elections, including insane McCain. Never again will I vote for a warmonger. Romney deep down doesn't like kissing Netanyahu's rear end. He will never get the votes he needs if he keeps up with a Cheney- neocon forign policy. I will never vote for a pro abort anti Christian biggot like Obama. I also won't vote for Romney unless he moderates his foreign policy to a saner more realistic one. He will never carry Wi. and most of the Mid-West if he doesn't.

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 3:01PM

Gee...that's fascinating!

Can you PLEASE identify this "Pro-War" ticket that you're constantly whining about?

Seriously...which candidate is currently running on the "Let's go to war and kill people" platform????

It's not Romney/Ryan...It's not even Obama/Biden.

So which one is it, Jack?

Since you've been wrong so many times before, Jack, and I've been 100% RIGHT, I'm ging to make a prediction:

Wisconsin WILL vote for Romney.

I've never been to Wisconsin, but I'm willing to bet that I'm far more in-touch with Wisconsin voters than you are.

Jack in Wi| 8.13.12 @ 3:26PM

Wi. hasn't voted for a Republican since 1984. I ought to know. I went to Reagan's innaugeration that year as a member of the Wisconsin delegation. Romney can win here because of state pride in Ryan. People here like backing the home team. The only way Romney will lose this state is if he continues to look like a warmongering lunatic like he did on his recent foreign trip. Wi. has always been an antiwar state. No way will someone who talks about bombing Iran win this state. McCain lost this state by 18 points. Usually it is very close here, but the Republicans lose. The mad bomber lost by 18 points.

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 4:26PM

Again...

WHICH candidate is running on the "Pro-War" platform, Jack???

It's a simple question.

Al Adab| 8.13.12 @ 4:54PM

I would like to hear that answer. No war mongers here. Perhaps he is referring to those who want to prevent Iran from going nuclear.

Last time I checked Conservatives wanted to avoid foreign actions and keep them short and decisive when they came. Following the Wilsonian policy of nation building is error.

Jack in Wi| 8.13.12 @ 5:03PM

I don't think Romney wants war. I think he sounds like a pro war crank when he lets people like Kristol. and Podhoretz run his foreign policy. No sane person here or in Israel wants another war. He has to moderate to a more peaceful foreign policy or he won't carry this state. It is time he thought like a hardheaded businessman. I think that is what he did when he took Ryan. I expect him to move to a far more peaceful foreign policy by the end of the convention or Labor day. If he does not he won't win the election.

Evelyn @ 77| 8.13.12 @ 8:48AM

Get off the dole.

Tear up your Medicare cards.

JONVIL| 8.13.12 @ 1:32PM

If I get your drift, IF Romney/Ryan win and have the b____ to do what is necessary they won't be able to if the American public is unwilling to pay the price (austerity?) even though the price later will be far worse, and I doubt that 'We the People' are willing to give up our unfunded 'entitlements'.

irish19| 8.13.12 @ 5:21PM

And that is the ultimate question. Are we, as a nation, will to make the sacrifices that will be necessary to get us off the slippery slope we're now on.

PolishKnight| 8.13.12 @ 9:55AM

It's an interesting contrast to the McCain/Palin ticket where a Maverick/open-moderate brought on a charmingly folksy (semi) conservative woman onto the ticket. It was a train wreck that campaign analysts will study for decades to come.

Ryan is (gasp!) white AND male and rather than this hurting the Republican party, perhaps it's useful to just deal with this and even capitalize on it: the left is now a party less about economic Marxism and more about race and shallow cronyism while the Republican party is focused upon their economic goals. Different special interest groups get minor benefits in the Democrat party but they ALL pay $4 for a gallon of gas and many of them (black men in particular) have been hardest hit by Obama's "change".

In addition, I hope that Romney/Ryan are smart enough to avoid the foolish mistake made by McCain/Palin and hit the late-night SNL and talk show scene where the unscrupulous leftist media will edit what they say out of context and mock the hell out of them. It is not presidential to put yourself up against a wall and let your enemies throw tomatoes against you. Did Reagan do the talk show circuit during his 1st run?

PJ| 8.13.12 @ 12:19PM

"Did Reagan do the talk show circuit during his 1st run?"

I believe that started with Clinton.

Al Adab| 8.13.12 @ 12:28PM

Does this selection mean that the RNC and Romney campaign think WI is potentially in play this year? Certainly they could use the electoral votes to pull out a win.

With the all too predictable reaction from The Left and the lap dog media to the "extreme right wing" Ryan do we expect a reprise of the handlers sutting Ryan down for a few eeeks to avoid controversy (typical of republicans) or can we expect Ryan to energize a tepid campaign and bring some excitment to the issue?

Deborah D| 8.13.12 @ 3:52PM

I think they will have to let Ryan be Ryan. He can handle any of the BS the media will throw at him. We must do our part and make sure we out here counter all of that BS by posting the truth on Facebook, in our blogs, in e-mails to people we know. This is it. Our country or collapse and who knows what after that.

PolishKnight| 8.13.12 @ 4:55PM

I think he can handle it, but he shouldn't go out and ask for more of it. He should avoid the leftist late night shows. Quite frankly, when a leftist seethes about the "propaganda" of Foxnews brainwashing the electorate, maybe it makes sense for him to avoid hostile media overall for two reasons:

1) The left likes being in control of the narrative and will edit out anything unfavorable to their cause unless Foxnews/Washington Times, etc. has a scoop. So why give them ammunition while they withhold anything damaging to their cause?
2) They make MONEY when they get a sound bite or edited interview (see the hatchet job on Palin) so it's a twofer for them when a rabbit wanders into the fox colony.

If conservatives avoided openly hostile leftist media pundits, then the left would feel a need to hire more friendly, "moderate" interviewers and hosts just to keep in business.

Al Adab| 8.13.12 @ 5:44PM

When I read through the list of debate moderators, I wondered why any GOP candidate would bother to do show. Frankly, with the exception of 1960 and 1980, they have meant very little. Too rote and programed.

A real debate, now that might be something. Think along the lines of: Resolved, the United States should establish a meaningful social-welfare state, or Resolved, government policies should be limited to furthering the enumerated powers. Question, do the States retain the right to act on their own behalf when the federal government refuses its Constitutional obligations? Lots we could debate, but these serial interviews fail to provide much substance.

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 7:11AM

If you have ever seen Paul Ryan in person, you will know, that if the RnR ticket wins, Obamacare will be gone, within a year. Ryan knows it and the disaster that it is far better than Nancy Pelosi ever could.

Paul Ryan, as VP, would never let Romney have another moment's rest, if he wobbled on repeal.

Actually, I see Vice President Ryan on Capitol Hill whipping repeal votes and budget votes regularly. I do not think you could keep him away. Finally someone will show how much you can get out a bucket of warm spit, it you set your mind to it, Mr. Roosevelt!

I can't wait for November -

DTOM

nathan| 8.13.12 @ 7:41AM

ACA will be gone in a year. Really? Let's do a little numbers crunching shall we? At most the republicans will get maybe 53/54 seats in the senate. So, the house proposes a repeal of ACA and it goes to the senate where it runs up against what class? The supermajority rule, the rule of 60. And how many democrats are going to cross over to give the republicans the votes necessary to blow away the democrats signature piece of social legislation? NOT ENOUGH FOLKS. At midterms ACA will still be with us. Sorry.

But ACA is not the problem. The legislation you all should be pushing to have repealed, the REAL threat to the country isn't ACA, it's last year's NDAA. The Fifth Amendment destroying language in that bill that says AMERICANS can be indefinitely detained (yes it says AMERICANS but no matter the Fifth Amendment says "no person" so it covers everyone anyway) without recourse to a lawyer or a judge. Like Padilla was. He was tortured too. So his Fifth AND Eighth Amendment rights were violated. Now that is what all of you really should be worried about. Who cares about your health coverage if you're locked away forever in some American gulag. And yes it can happen and has happened. Ask the Japanese how those camps out west were. A lot of them were Americans too.

I suggest you all focus on the real threat here.

Indy| 8.13.12 @ 7:55AM

Much of ACA can be repealed via reconciliation, the same way it was passed. The IPAB repeal will likely require 60 votes but it can be done, it is not popular so we can pressure the Dems with massive pressure coming from seniors a keuy part of their base. There is much to repeal and many threats including NDAA but face it, the GOP allowed this to happen along with drones flying in the US, positions no longer needing Senate Confirmation, expansion of Secret Service authority which was a direct attack on the 1st Amendment. GOP Leadership needs to go.

sugarfoot| 8.13.12 @ 8:05AM

You stole my thunder on this but I'm ok with that Thanks for explaining this to Nathan (who lives on another planet...LOL!)

nathan| 8.13.12 @ 8:25AM

Planet reality! LOL

And enthusiasm for Ryan? Why? The Bible says by their actions we shall know them. So let's take a look at Ryan's RECORD shall we? (How unfair of me!) Now for all that marvelous rhetoric of his on deficit reduction how did he actually VOTE?

He voted for and actually played cheer leader for Medicare Plan D at the time the biggest expansion of social engineering since Great Society. So who is the REAL Ryan. The guy who wants to expand Medicare or reform it? Based on his vote . . . And I'm sorry I don't care about his explanations/excuses. He voted for it folks. Actions speak louder than words. He voted for TARP (which was unconstitutional). And da da he voted for NDAA. WOW what a sterling record. So he voted to grow the deficit and take my rights away from me. That makes me feel real good about him! LOL And by the way for those of you who can't bear the thought of cutting defense, look at the IG report. Then tell us defense can't be cut. That report is DEVASTATING.

So I'm going home to planet reality. Come visit when you have a moment. LOL

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 10:47AM

nathan;

I was waiting for someone like you..

Sure Ryan and Romney have some bad hair. No question, but what do you want?

Ronald Reagan is resting in peace. He's not coming back to THIS world. So we have to make do with real human beings that have records and some currency in our political climate.

So Ryan and Romney supported some imperfect legislation.

Well GUESS WHAT you have two choices:

A. Romney and Ryan who actually understand economics and how to make an economy work and ACTUALLY WANT IT TO. RnR understand the American concept of freemen goeverning themselves, free of slavery and subjugation!

OR
B. The PROVEN socialist and his slightly trained monkey who have:
Opened our borders,
Emptied our treasury,
Gutted our defenses,
Taken over our health care system,
Destroyed the banking system,
Demolished the auto industry
Stopped the energy industry
are targeting farmers and fisheries
and have now attack our freedom to practice our religions,
while promoting the slaughter of 1.8 million infants in their selfish, unwilling mothers' wombs. (Who are far apt to be minorities than not...call me racist, go ahead!)

To name just a few of their crimes against our country!

Are Ryan and Romney really that bad?

HOW STUPID ARE YOU?!

This is a real election, with real results, with real people 's lives hanging in the balance.

SHUT UP, GO OUT AND SUPPORT THE END OF OBAMA!

DO NOT F'ING TREAD ON ME!!!!!

nathan| 8.13.12 @ 11:27AM

I was going to respond but I give up for now. I do. Believe what you want. Honest. This becomes pointless after awhile. Enjoy your day and I hope everything goes the way you want sir. I really do.

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 12:20PM

So you don't believe in the open borders?

The military budget fund sequestration?

The GM bailout? Stock was $39 now under $20.

Obamacare?

The toothfairy?

You didn't respond because you cannot. There is no response possible. He has done all that and far, far more.

Just be quiet and let us save the country. Your lies are pointless, useless, and evil. Be gone!

Thanks for your good wishes. Just remember that as an American, I would do everything in my power to make sure that you have the freedom to express your opinions. I just wish you would expend as much effort to be well-informed as our forefathers spent creating and protecting our ability to have this conversation.

Many of your opinions put that freedom at risk, unnecessarily.

canuckistani| 8.13.12 @ 12:45PM

Nathan, don't even try with them today. They need a cold shower and not a cigarette after Saturday's snoozer of an announcement.

Willard knows about balance sheets not economics. His actual record shows he knows nothing about economics.

Willard has flip-flopped his way so far to the right that this campaign is now going to be about him defending Ryan's high school theoretical rather than promoting a Willard plan of his own.
It already started with the soft-ball interview on 60 minutes, and Willard's obvious discomfort with having the Bagger darling sitting next to him.

Careful what you wish for, and Willard has just got it. The next several weeks will be amusing watching Willard and Ryan walk back countless statements.
Ryan is young, insulated and a policy lifer. He has zero risk with the upcoming fail. Willard threw a bomb to the wrong endzone. He feared his base rather than striving for the swing voters that actually win elections....and WI is out of play.

BHO can just sit back and watch from the sidelines. Sad.

Tom Kyba| 8.13.12 @ 1:32PM

Sorry little hate monger, but you need to deal with the fact that no one respects anything you say. Not now, not ever.

Oldefarte| 8.13.12 @ 2:27PM

And seated next to him on those sidelines are the Muslim oil sheiks, Muslim Brotherhood members etc from the ME and throughout the world yelling ALLAH IS GREAT, SHARIA LAW IS COMING; while handing him bags of their foreign oil money!!!!!!!!!

nathan| 8.13.12 @ 2:37PM

You have a point. I mean just take one issue, the bailouts. Ryan voted for all of them, GM, Wall Street, you name it. Along with Plan D he literally voted to add one/two? trillion to the deficit. And yet I'm getting yelled at? Kill the messenger indeed.

But thank you sir. I do appreciate it.

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 3:05PM

...And Craplakistan's greatest - and most frequently wrong - prognosticator weighs-in with more 3rd-world inspired idiocy!

Hey, Mustapha!

Can you name one (1) great statesman from the cesspool you hail from?

To imply that Mitt Romney doesn't understand economics utterly stupid.

You're a joke.

Indy| 8.13.12 @ 8:16AM

Oops, I meant "key" that's what happens when I type before that second cup of coffee. Seniors will not let IPAB stand, nor will any American who has any sense. Happy Monday all!

sugarfoot| 8.13.12 @ 8:02AM

Nathan... what planet do you really live on?

canuckistani| 8.13.12 @ 12:48PM

Earth, the round one, not the flat one the genius cartographers on here conjure each morning.

Tom Kyba| 8.13.12 @ 1:33PM

Imhotep...Imhotep...Imhotep!

Oldefarte| 8.13.12 @ 2:31PM

Praise be to Allah, right??????????

nathan| 8.13.12 @ 2:42PM

There are days when I wish I did live on another one. LOL Sigh

But like I said then the commute would really be a nightmare. I mean I-75 is bad but can you imagine dodging all those asteroids and drunken martians and other space aliens?

Chill folks. Lighten up just a little?

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 3:46PM

Yep, us, too.

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 3:11PM

Is that the same earth where ignorant Muslims still stone people to death for adultery and homosexuality?

Or cut-off young girl's noses and ears?

Or practice "honor killings" of their own daughters?

Is that the same earth where the misogynistic, backwards religion known as Islam has held back their civilization for 800 years?

Face it, Canuckie...your part of the world is a dump.

That's why you're here, sucking off of the freedom and opportunity that the western world (and Judeo-Christian principles) provides.

Interested Conservative| 8.14.12 @ 12:33PM

The "REAL" threat? Try the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946. It's what the 16th Amendment bought us.

Just Curious| 8.13.12 @ 10:21AM

Good idea, Evelyn. Let's follow her advice.

Get off the dole.

Tear up your Medicare cards.

JONVIL| 8.13.12 @ 1:36PM

I also am pessimistically hopeful (?)

nathan| 8.13.12 @ 2:44PM

I have to think about that. Pessimistically hopeful? Umm. Now I'm going to be wondering the rest of the evening exactly what THAT means! LOL Thank you.

benny havens| 8.13.12 @ 7:26AM

It will be interesting to see Ryan debate “make it up as you go along Joe”.

spike59| 8.13.12 @ 12:41PM

i can't wait for the show...already working on the menu; this will be more entertaining than the Super Bowl

canuckistani| 8.13.12 @ 12:55PM

You mean the part where Ryan - a lifer pol from diapers - explains his enthusiastic support for Part D and Tarp?

His highschool-level theoretical on budgeting and his pubescent embrace of the Randian "pick up my ball and go home" treatise on policy leadership will be an interesting segment as well. He cannot square either of them.

He is from WI, a state - like Alaska - that has been on the government teat since confederation, and continues to produce these types of pols.

Everything about this man's record defies his perceived conservative "spine". Just another talking head from the right that emerged when cover was available.

Oldefarte| 8.13.12 @ 2:33PM

Praise be to Allah, huh??????

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 3:16PM

Alah Hoooo Snackbar!

benny havens| 8.13.12 @ 3:03PM

No, I mean where the consummate American bullshit artist “literally” gives us two sets of different numbers answering the same question.

Gary B| 8.13.12 @ 7:35AM

I thought I was going to be disappointed in Romney's VP pick. I am not.

Priority number one is restoring our culture. Priority number two is restoring the free market. The Romney/Ryan team is prefect for both.

And, as DTOM says, Ryan will help keep Romney on message. This is very good.

Indy| 8.13.12 @ 7:57AM

Interesting to see your comment on culture...that's what these young conservatives were discussing, good stuff at this link

http://misfitpolitics.co/2012/.....can-party/

Gary B| 8.13.12 @ 10:34AM

Here's what Paul Craig Roberts had to say about Christianity. Makes a ton of sense...

“There is plenty of room for cultural diversity in the world, but not in a single country….All Americans have a huge stake in Christianity. Whether or not we are individually believers in Christ, we are beneficiaries of the moral doctrine that has curbed power and protected the weak….Power that is secularized and cut free of civilizing traditions is not limited by moral and religious scruples.”

Of course, liberals think there is plenty of room for cultural diversity in our country, but not in their neighborhoods.

Gary B| 8.13.12 @ 10:40AM

Romney and Ryan are the poster boys for this underlying message of morality and cultural preservation. Obama is the poster boy for lawlessness and cultural destruction. In other words a common, no-talent, Marxist thug.

Kingofthenet| 8.13.12 @ 12:42PM

Gary B, Priority ONE has to be 'get elected' otherwise everything else is a moot point.

canuckistani| 8.13.12 @ 12:58PM

Then Willard will fail.

The Ryan nom excites people already voting for him. No one else.

And people already voting for Willard have already demonstrated an inability to convert anyone to their side.

He needed a transformative nom, not a party hack that puts people to sleep. Willard already did that himself.

Gary B| 8.13.12 @ 1:01PM

We'll soon see...

Oldefarte| 8.13.12 @ 2:35PM

You must have bumped your head when bowing on your prayer rug !!!!!

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 3:14PM

You're categorically wrong...again.

The Ryan nomination HAS definitely convinced Conservative fence-sitters who were not impressed by Romney to vote for the ticket.

Gary B| 8.13.12 @ 1:03PM

The assumption is that the campaign will carry this message. And yes, of course, not getting elected would require firmer measures.

Stephanie| 8.13.12 @ 7:58AM

And what better place to bring out his VP pick but on the Wisconsin in Norfolk! We in Hampton Roads are proud to have had it happen here!
I'm so excited!

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 10:52AM

Symbolizing to me:

Wisconsin - the state that has righted its fiscal house in eighteen months by standing up to out-of-control government spending.

and a US warship that represents the importance of our nation's defense.

Felt positively Reaganesque...

DTOM

canuckistani| 8.13.12 @ 12:59PM

He already has that vote.
Interesting he made the announcement at a tax-payer paid site.

Seems like hypocrisy is the word of the day.

If Ryan could have built a naval base in his district, he would have.

Oldefarte| 8.13.12 @ 2:37PM

Well the other guy is building a naval base in Iran with US taxpayers' money.....so what??????

Skippy| 8.13.12 @ 2:50PM

Thanks for finding the rocks at the bottom of the soup pot.
And from our Dear Leader:
"Thanks!"
BHO

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 3:52PM

Actually the USN has been sailing ships built in Wisconsin since the Second World War. Congressman Ryan's district includes Lake Michigan frontage where a shipyard could have been built easily. But then why would a fiscal conservative who worries about WASTEFUL government spending pursue a redundant shipyard in his district. Your comment is senseless. Are you?

DTOM

Maxwell| 8.13.12 @ 8:00AM

I would love to see a debate between Ryan and Obama as part of this election cycle.

sugarfoot| 8.13.12 @ 8:07AM

Max, you're not the only one who love to see it!

JimH| 8.13.12 @ 8:16AM

You will get Biden vs Ryan which wil be like Bambi vs Godzilla.

cuban pete| 8.13.12 @ 9:15AM

Jim:
I hope you're right but I remember anticipating Jack Kemp against Al Gore. Kemp was one of my heroes and bright,articulate guy. I thought he would hand Gore his hat but he was terrible in the debate.
I've got my fingers crossed.

JimH| 8.13.12 @ 9:22AM

I liked Kemp, but I think he may have taken too many shots to the head in the AFL. Plus its tough when your oponent lies and you are unwilling to call him on it.

canuckistani| 8.13.12 @ 1:01PM

Biden being Godzilla.

Be careful when real questioning comes Ryan's way. All it takes is one slip of the so-called loopholes he is willing to part with to pay for his marginal tax cut and the game is up.

Oldefarte| 8.13.12 @ 2:41PM

Wait, Biden can't be his BOSS, can he? And speaking of his BOSS, if they disallow teleprompters at the debates, you'll hear mostly DUHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

irish19| 8.13.12 @ 5:38PM

I saw that movie. It was very short.

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 9:28AM

Don't et carried away about the debates; they NEVER deliver the knock-out punch that either Party hopes for.

Why? Because they're not real debates.

They're silly "town hall" meetings, devoid of any substantiative discussion on the issues.

Besides...do you think that Obama's hardcore, leftwing supporters will be swayed by a debate???

Please...most of his supporters can't even spell "debate." They'd vote for Obama even if he threatened to negate the Constitution and declare himself King...

JONVIL| 8.13.12 @ 1:43PM

TOO true!!

Oldefarte| 8.13.12 @ 2:44PM

"They'd vote for Obama even if he threatened to negate the Constitution and declare himself King..." ......'IF' ????????????????????

c. j. acworth| 8.13.12 @ 8:04AM

Interesting isn't it. For the second time the base of the party is more excited about the guy/gal in the #2 slot. Lets hope this team can pull it off, because 4 more years of Obama will sink us.

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 11:20AM

c.j.

I read it a little different. Romney picked a solid, proven, conservatively-oriented, well-spoken rock star. With a lot of cred - from his performance and his ability to explain the American principles conservatives love so much.

Ryan has more budget credibility than Rubio, Portman, Christe, you name it. HE has more name recognintion than you might think. For three years now, it's been a choice between "the Ryan budget" and the ongoing disaster. Ryan has credibility the media cannot overcome, because of that experience. (They know he's smarter than them and they cannot get around that.)

Besides, chicks dig him, he's hot, and he speaks almost as well as Reagan did in explaining the basics of true American liberty. In speaking directly to the nation, on the stump, at the convention, and in debate, Joe Six-Pack will get this deer-hunting, Packers fan like you will not believe. Wait for it!

DTOM

Skippy| 8.13.12 @ 2:55PM

I have always thought that GWB's VP choice galvinized the conservative base in both of his victories.
*Keyword: victories.

irish19| 8.13.12 @ 5:40PM

Packers fan? I guess I'll vote for him anyway. He's a bowhunter even though he doesn't use a real bow so that sort of makes up for the Packers thing.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.13.12 @ 8:12AM

You bet we are ready! All we got to do is get our lazy assed brothers in law off their dead asses on election day.

KennesawJack| 8.13.12 @ 10:16AM

Not my brother-in-law. I want him to keep his lazy, dependent ass on the couch. If he went to the polls he'd vote for the Marxist.

Derek Leaberry| 8.13.12 @ 8:31AM

The Paul Ryan pick is bold and has probably cost Mitt Romney the election. Previous to the Ryan pick, the election was going to be a referendum on the failed presidency of Barack Obama. But now the Obama campaign will focus on attacking the Ryan budget plan which radically alters the Medicare plan. The Democrats will demagog the issue at the expense of not only the Romney campaign but at the expense of the nation.

PolishKnight| 8.13.12 @ 10:00AM

This attack can be answered by the fact that Obamacare also radically alters, and even cuts, medicare and medicaid. This could easily backfire on the left.

Someone in the Mitt campaign has a few brain cells because I saw a response ad to the carefully crafted Obama "middle class" keyword campaign claim of "outsourcing" at Bain Capital with a response that Obama's stimulus sent taxpayer money to China and Germany to make windmills. In other words, Obama's agenda is totally void of positive content for the middle and working class (not to mention the "rich" apart from his cronies.) It's really hard to imagine why anyone votes for Obama other than being a government crony, welfare recipient, or racial entitlement seeker (or fool!)

Derek Leaberry| 8.13.12 @ 11:32AM

I agree that the Obama must wage a negative campaign out of necessity. Any normal American would say that Obama is a failed president. Yet Third World immigration since 1965 has provided the Democrats a tremendous political base. Barack Obama could go on television tomorrow wearing only boxer shorts with naked blondes on each elbow and chainsaw a baby in half and still win 45 % of the vote. That's how firm a base the political left has today.

PolishKnight| 8.13.12 @ 11:58AM

Hello Derek, yes I've often observed that as well. Ironically, this strategy by the left is going to backfire in an unusual way.

More than a hundred years after Marx penned his summation of class warfare from his sister's attic, we see that his agenda is not about economic class warfare after all but the lowest common denominator of all leftists: race bashing. The utopia of the left which means tearing down the "rich" to help the poor will never be realized. Ever. It will just be a bunch of cronies and oligarchs. And this observation makes the typical leftist I argue with VERY uncomfortable. They're just a bunch of useful idiots, race and welfare entitlement groups, and cronies (a club that most of them will never be invited to.) So what's the point?

In a short time, the demographic end game will arise and then it will be an IQ test to see how many foolish whites remain in the Democrat party along with principled minorities who realize that they're just going to get bread and circuses in a low standard of living slum. To survive and attract smart whites and married couples away from the Democrats, the Republican party will need to stop tiptoeing around race. They'll need to come out and go after affirmative action as aggressively as tax increases on the rich.

And then all hell will break loose.

Oldefarte| 8.13.12 @ 2:50PM

Sorry but you've miscalculated that 45%, since it only includes the TinselTown HOES and SWICHES, the NE liberal/environmental wackos, and the minorities. That does not total 45%, and no you cannot count the illegals pollvaulting over Texas' southern fences either [since they don't have a photo ID.....yet] !!!!!

Skippy| 8.13.12 @ 2:57PM

When 50%+ vote for access to your wallet, either hand it over or prepare for AmRev 2.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.13.12 @ 10:11AM

Derek,
screw you, you damned anarchist!

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 11:02AM

Derek, you ignorant nut;

Romney was going to get painted and tainted with Ryan's budget anyway. You have never heard Ryan defend it. If you had, you would know that no one defends it better than Paul Ryan, so why not have the real deal standing there.

Go look at the six minutes from 2010 when Ryan, to Obama's face, told him that Obamacare was an unmitigated disaster. To which Obama could only fume and sputter.

And if saving the Medicare plan is "radically alters" what is stealing 80% of its funding, hmmm?

You are either woefully un-informed, listening to that moron Paul Mirengoff at Powerline, or a Soros-paid stooge.

Please go do some homework, look it over and realize that pessimism is not what is wanted, needed, or tolerated.

Now, GIT! Crack them books!

DTOM

And another thing - face it, Obama HATES Paul Ryan, which will set Obama up for more stupid out-of-control- outbursts. We will hear at least another ten gaffes like, "all 57 states," "spread it around," "the private economy is doing fine," "you didn't build it." ad nauseam. Watch for them...

PJ| 8.13.12 @ 12:36PM

Looking forward to those "...stupid out-of-control-outbursts." And when Obama blurts them out, I hope it goes viral.

Let's have fun on Obama's expense!

Boar Hunter| 8.13.12 @ 11:12AM

Which one of the budgets passed by Obama during the last three years is the one your comparing Ryan's "proposed" budget against?

I wonder how many demorat votes Ryan would garner for his plan, since Obama got none?

JONVIL| 8.13.12 @ 1:53PM

Obama et al dare not even hint at anything substantive in that they are void of substance, all they can do is fling dung hoping the unwashed masses will believe it

MPAI

JONVIL| 8.13.12 @ 1:55PM

This was supposed to be attached to:

Derek Leaberry| 8.13.12 @ 8:31AM

Purp| 8.13.12 @ 8:38AM

Enjoy your excitement. It will be short lived when you remember WHO you are voting for as President. The RomBot. The rollout was well planned and well executed - with the exception of who else? Romney saying "Welcome the Next President of the United States, Paul Ryan".
But Seniors want security and the guarantee that Social Security and Medicare provide for their dignity and independence. They don't want choice as much. When that kicks in, R's can kiss Florida, Iowa and NH goodbye. Ohio and PA are about gone Democratic. And, that people, is the election. Changing Medicare from a guarantee to a privatized "Voucher program" is the death knell for Romney/Ryan. And all that to give 5 Trillion in more tax cuts for the wealthy. Don't forget gutting Medicare which a lot of seniors depend on too, not to mention the Christian poor. Education, fughedaboutit. Dream Act, fughedaboutit.
A Billion Dollars won't put lipstick on this pig. But it's going to be oh so much fun!
Have a nice day.

jothepro| 8.13.12 @ 8:56AM

You and Nathan ought to get together on planet Stupid Purp smear..

CJW| 8.13.12 @ 9:12AM

Wow this is a shock, Purpie the Village Idiot does not like Ryan.

Ryan does not have a wife who got a job at $317,000 per year and then Obama requested a million dollar earmark for the hospital, then the job was eliminated in 2009 when Michele took on the job as First Vacationer in Spain, Hawaii, Martha's Vineyard, while Obama became First Golfer.

And Paul Ryan did not have his house paid by Tony Rezko.

Purpie thinks the the Romney tax plan to reduce the tax rates by 25% so that the 10% goes to 8% means the 0% rate increases ot 8%!!!!

Ignore this idiot. He is a paid $10 hour troll.
Romney will win by a landslide.

Obama is afraid of Ryan after he cleaned his clock in the budget meetings.

The Biden/ Ryan debate should be cancelled on humanitarian reasons. Biden is aldready looking plagiarize some arguments for the debate.

Drunken Sailor| 8.13.12 @ 9:13AM

And Obama making 700 million in cuts to Medicaid is not gutting it? You might want to take a look at how popular Ryan is in Wisconsin, in a heavy Democrat area. Unlike Obama, Ryan treats people like adults, gives them the actual facts and then offers a solution. Obama has only offered budgets that he couldn't even get his own party to pass in the Senate.

irish19| 8.13.12 @ 5:46PM

Last I checked, it was 500 billion with a 'b'. Or was that what he was taking from Medicare?
Ryan's plan specifically exempts those already over 55, and always did.
There is also currently a compromise plan that would allow those who wish to opt for traditional Medicare coverage.

Purp| 8.13.12 @ 6:27PM

you got any idea where the 700 Billion goes? Until you do, you shouldn't speak.

CJW| 8.13.12 @ 6:40PM

Where does it go, Obamaboy?

PolishKnight| 8.13.12 @ 10:02AM

"Go Obama! Go go! Republicans suck! Gooooo Swedish socialism (by turning the world into Newark first!"

Yeah, good luck with that game, Purp. Hehe. Three words: 4 dollar gas!

Purp| 8.13.12 @ 6:29PM

5 Words back - Throw Grandma over the Cliff.
Or else she's moving in with you ...

PolishKnight| 8.14.12 @ 1:40PM

Purp, your claim of Ryan throwing grandmother over the cliff is political hyperbole. Of course Ryan isn't literally throwing Grandma over a cliff and Obamacare itself is messing with Medicaid and Medicare. We can argue about that, but they are politically abstract arguments.

On the other hand, $4 gasoline is real. Unemployment is real. You can't argue these things away. This is the beast that killed the former USSR and is killing Greece and the leftist utopia they aspire to in Western Europe. And not only that, but there are other problems the left has created to win elections (exacerbating race and unwed motherhood.)

Besides your boilerplate NYT and Democrat talking point arguments and bashing GW, what is your agenda accomplishing for the average Joe and even Jane six pack proletariat worker?

pogybait| 8.13.12 @ 10:29AM

Purp, you are certainly right to narrow the bounds of public discourse and insist that conventional wisdom unknown to the to the world the day before yesterday is now as unquestionable as the laws of physics. I agree that courageous Democrats in congress that have worked long, long hours, to bring the first of the many five year plans. Yet they have given us everything and ask for so little in return, save a greater portion of our income and political obedience. It just seems to me that Republicans just don’t appreciate the fine art of social engineering. The choice our generation faces will decide the future of America: Do we want to live in a Republican dystopia of fiscal and moral absolutes or a Progressive Utopia of next Tuesday. However Purp, we mustn’t drop our shovels too soon and take a breath and admire our leader’s next five year plan or admire the visage of Obama’s picture at one of the many Constitutionally protected newspapers or television news programs , there is hope that we can arouse the righteous anger to many in our country as to not being forced to become American citizens and give undocumented workers the right or incentive to vote Democrat in November ...

Oldefarte| 8.13.12 @ 2:57PM

Purp, why do I have a vision of THE BLACK JESUS in a bathing suit, with a golf club in his hand, a cigarette dangling from his substantial lips, wearing a turbin, with Moochel seductively by his side while batting her sandblasted-on eyelashes, and accepting wheelbarrowed bags of money from Iran's IMADINNERJACKET and Muslim Brotherhooders from Pakistan??????

Purp| 8.13.12 @ 6:30PM

Because you're obsessed with Obama?

nathan| 8.13.12 @ 8:54AM

I will state again from planet in a far away galaxy I live on (the commute is a pain trust me and you should see my gasoline bills) that Ryan's record shows he voted twice, count 'em twice to meaningfully expand the deficit (Medicare Plan D, TARP) and to take away you rights (NDAA). Now he can talk all he wants about reforming Medicare but he really got off to a great start with THAT vote didn't he? And remember his budget proposal had most of the deficit reductions coming what 10 years out. Everyone knows you can't bind future congresses. So how seriously do you want to take this guy? And he voted for NDAA. Why because he was lazy about the Fifth Amendment detain Americans indefinitely provisions ORRRR he really supports that? Either way you all aren't just a "little" worried here? Now let me go gas up the old space ship and go back to that planet I live on. I tell the commute is a killer . . . .

CJW| 8.13.12 @ 9:23AM

Do you prefer Obama/Biden, Nathan?

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 11:07AM

Nathan has been whining about this repeatedly. With little regard for the opposite reality that will result from an Obama win this November.

Nathan, you are showing yourself as a Soros-funded troll? Just like Purp.

So are you just a useful idiot or an actual unrepentant communist? Do tell...

DTOM

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 11:10AM

And Nate, we don't care about your commute - but let me ask you this: who will cut your commuting costs more?

The ticket that wants you in an economically-non-viable electric car,

or the ticket that wants energy independence?

You are so dense you can't even figure out that.

I'm starting to think you aren't a communist - too bad for you.

DTOM

Drunken Sailor| 8.13.12 @ 11:16AM

Nathan is still mad Ron Paul didn't get the ticket.

Boar Hunter| 8.13.12 @ 12:23PM

He would prefer Mao or Marx

JONVIL| 8.13.12 @ 2:00PM

Obviously!

JONVIL| 8.13.12 @ 2:02PM

My comments are ending up every where except where I posted them

Drunken Sailor| 8.13.12 @ 3:17PM

Sounds like your computer has the Obama virus.

Boar Hunter| 8.13.12 @ 12:23PM

It is "pointless" to discuss any subject with someone like you who twists and distorts facts to support your own personal anti-American agenda.

You sound a lot like this lady:

"This morning, Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter appeared on Face The Nation, where she discussed Obamacare’s $700 billion cuts to Medicare. She touted those cuts as an “achievement”:

"Well, you know ask the wealthy to pay a little bit more. Cut waste from the government. Reform Medicare. More than $300 billion in savings from Medicare. On top of the savings we’ve already achieved. You know I heard Mitt Romney deride the $700 billion cuts in Medicare that the president achieved through health care reform."

You twist and spin more than one of those girls in the Olympics who dance with a ribbon on a stick.

pogybait| 8.13.12 @ 7:05PM

Nathan, I think your right….if our seething, drooling hatred for Romney and Ryan isn’t enough to win these idiots over to our wonderful world of Utopia, then it is time to join the progressive pundits and stop pulling punches. Look, if we are ever to win this election and earn forgiveness from Iran and Islamic freedom fighters for our arrogance, we need to get out there and ridicule these Republicans more. Nathan, together, we can rebuild America out of the ashes of Capitalism, and lead all those intolerant morons into a bright, new, social utopia with a government issued boot in every pot ( made in China ) and three families living in every garage….Forward!

Marco2| 8.13.12 @ 8:54AM

Hey Purp, same old commie twaddle, eh? Stay away from open flame on November 6th, as commie gasbags all are blown away big time. A good time for a pilgrimage to Cuba, perhaps.

Purp| 8.13.12 @ 6:31PM

Alright anarchist. enjoy your end.

JimH| 8.13.12 @ 9:16AM

It’s interesting to note who in fact attends political rallies. On the left they tend to be populated by union (mostly government) workers and nominal students bused in for the occasion, often with promises of free food or other compensation. On the right you see the enthusiasm of people who want to be there.

Pecos Pete| 8.13.12 @ 10:47AM

Jim: Excellent point! King O draws from paid supporters and know nothings. R/R draw VOTERS!

JONVIL| 8.13.12 @ 2:04PM

My fear is who ends up counting the votes

Mimi | 8.13.12 @ 9:58AM

Something darn BIG has happened over the weekend......THE CROWDS !
You look at these two decent men...both saying the right things to America...they didn't have to put themselves through this...with the ugly, slimy, ruthless liars, who will do anything to keep power...they have no moral compass...they admit..."Of course we lied...and it was effective!"
What is most frustrating, they have no respect for The Constitution or laws. OUR guys will need our money, support, goodwill and votes...But mostly OUR PRAYERS that god will wrap an armor to mantle their bodies and souls to protect them for they will do BATTLE for they face unfair, corrupt opponents! You got to give them credit for the willingness to serve...we are in such a mess, and so much frustrating WORK needs to be done. We are really blessed with these men!

Who Knows?| 8.13.12 @ 10:21AM

As a 49er fan since 1956---San Francisco was the closest team to Portland---Romney-Ryan reminds me of the days when Joe Montana and Steve Young were on the team. Except, in this case, they aren’t fighting for the same job.

And, like the 49ers in those halcyon days, 2012’s R & R brothers have great “players” in all positions.

After all, on offense, it’s the line that makes or breaks a team. And, for R & R, the “line” is the core beliefs both Mitt and Paul share in the love of our CONSTITUTIONAL country. Yes, it’s ultimately NOT even about R & R, but what they re-present.

We have a re-presentative government, or we’re supposed to, anyway. Obama and his ilk are de-re-presentative usurpers!

The Constitution was supposed to always be PRESENT—and, accounted for. The progressives, the know it alls, have since Wilson been trying to relegate it to the PAST. Their hidden motto is---“WE are the FUTURE---psst: not the old, dead, white man’s Constitution.”

And, along comes Mitt & Paul, to RE-present that barely living document.

I’ll say it again---it’s the brainwashed voters who direly need to get the freedom lesson, so the real war has been enjoined. The real war?

Fight to educate the masses.

R & R are most essentially freedom teachers.

Ian Cognito | 8.13.12 @ 11:09AM

The Dems are so desperate, they are concocting bogus polls to create the appearance support for Obama is abysmal. Pew, ABC, NBC, All the recent polling had an overweighted Democrat sample group - recent oversampling = 9-11 Democrat advantage. Additionally, they poll ADULTS - not registered or likely voters. The questions asked - what do you think of Pres. Obama - As A Person? This explains the disconnect between favorability polling that has Obama at 43%. These groups also are conducting a large number of polls - WHY? The Real Clear Politics AVERAGE. RCP averages the polls. It gives Independent idiots - whose main goal is to claim they voted for the winner - a reason to vote Obama. Dont believe the hype. Take away the over sampling, and all the polling mysteriously aligns perfectly. Obama's polling at 43%. Add 9-11 points the Romney = 54-56%. Obama can't break 50% even with phony polling!!! The desperation reeks. It explains the atrocious ads and attacks too. Only a team with nothing to lose behaves this way.

irish19| 8.13.12 @ 5:52PM

Nicely done.

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 11:31AM

I hate to say this. I really do.

The euphoria over Ryan is a little mystifying. First of all, even his "conservative plan" won't save us. Sorry, but it won't. And it's never going to see the light of day in any case; so he's a symbolic choice, meant to assuage the jittery base.

Second, veeps just don't matter that much. Yes, they are significant surrogate campaigners, and yes, Cheney played a special role, but that's not usually the case; did Palin stop the great sucking sound that was the McCain campaign? No. Did Biden's abject idiocy dent Obama's patina of inevitablility? Not so much as a scratch.

I like Ryan. I even like Romney well enough. And I think that he might very well win (unless the Justice Department issues an diktat forbidding Republican votes from being counted, always a possibility).

So Romney wins. Then what? He, not Ryan, is going to be the guy in the Oval Office, and he will simply not be able - poltically, tempermentally or ideologically - to do what needs to be done in order to save us from total economic collapse.

If you think Romney's going to deliver a speech telling Americans the truth - that we have to cut entitlements drastically, across the board, by massive amounts, then you are kidding youself. He's going to nibble ineffectually at the edges of our debt (thwarted from anything significant by a corrupt and craven GOP), keep the printing presses going and pray that the music doesn't stop while he's president. It will.

Drunken Sailor| 8.13.12 @ 11:44AM

Gyzmlyk,
You have to start somewhere right? Romney just picked the only guy in both parties that was brave enough to offer a plan to begin cutting the deficit and entitlements. It's not only a start, it's a pretty damn good one.

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 12:05PM

Drunken Sailor, I'm sorry to say he's simply not going to be ABLE to do what needs to be done. The critical mass that comprises local, state and Federal government - the millions of entitlemment recipients, the hundreds of thousands of lawyers, lobbyists, career bureaucrats, judges, staffers and other various apparatchiks have congealed into a juggernaut whose inertial momentum is unstoppable.

We saw what happened in Wisconsin when Scott Walker had the temerity to ask retired workers to contribute a tad more to their pensions. We saw what happened in greece with the pensioners rioting and the EU caving and forcing Germany to pony up.

Those instances of social disruption are child's play compared to what's going to happen here, and no politician is going to subject himself to that even if he could, which Romney will not be able to do.

You can say that removing one grain of sand on the beach at a time is a "start" vis a vis emptying the shoreline of sand, but, at some point, it's mathematically ridiculous.

I'm sorry - we're already over the cliff. Romney can tap the brakes all he wants - from here on out, it's simply a matter of economic physics.

The only way "out" is massive default via inflation, which is no way out at all. That's where we are headed. Once the car is over the cliff, it no longer matters who is at the wheel.

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 12:26PM

Grzmlyk;

You obviously do not remember the changes that happened when Reagan was sworn in.

Despair has no place in the hearts of citizens. Stop peddling it.

Many were very busy saying that America was finished. We were in a tight spot - but then in 1980 they told us the world would run out of oil in the early 1990's.

Do not listen to the nay-sayers they are devils who will only hurt us all. Reagan knew that 'this' could be fixed.

It can - we just gotta the Democrats outta the way.

DTOM

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 2:11PM

DTOM, you are wrong. We are WAY worse off than we were when Reagan was elected. We weren't $5 trillion in debt under Reagan. Our unfunded liabilities didn't total $700 trillion. There is NO WAY we can meet those liabilities. Do you understand that? Our population wasn't aging as badly as it is now. The dollar has been eroded tremendously. And, like it or not, Reagan himself kicked the can down the road in some ways, as with the payroll tax increase.

You are 100 percent emotion and zero percent logic. This isn't about despair; it's about fiscal reality. But it's obvious that you are not going to face reality. So enjoy your fantasy for as long as you can.

Drunken Sailor| 8.13.12 @ 12:31PM

Grz,

I think I understand better now what your saying and I pray you are wrong. Even if the car is going over the cliff it is human nature to at least try and stop it regardless of how fruitful the attempt may be.

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 2:37PM

True, Drunken Sailor.

It is human nature to deny the horrible, and we have taken our ever-improving standard of living for granted for so long that we have forgotten that this entire delusion has been purchased on credit. We now borrow almost $200 billion every hour of every day to keep this country running, and the Treasury is now buying our debt (i.e., printing money) to prop up the economy.

I am terrified at what is about to happen in this country. And I'm horrified. And I blame liberalism 100%. And the GOP's cowering before liberalism for the last 75 years, and the mainstream media's sanctifying liberal hogwash and the myth of Keynesianism.

The good news is that, after we collapse, we'll have the opportunity to start over. Maybe we won't make the same mistakes next time around.

Al Adab| 8.13.12 @ 3:40PM

GRZ:
Good to see you back old friend.

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 5:02PM

Thank you, Al Adab.

Nice to be back - I don't get much opportunity to post anymore.

Who Knows?| 8.13.12 @ 12:37PM

I agree that there’s a POSSIBILITY for fiscal calamity.

However, I wouldn’t bet on it.

My guess is there will continue to be erosion of the dollar, and the subsequent ongoing reduction in American’s net worth. But, somehow, as Churchill put it, after trying everything else, America finally does the right thing.

And besides, so what if the USA has to go through another Depression? Somehow or another, bankrupt economies and political systems MUST be purged!

That’s why preparing for the future, personally, is always the responsible action, not depending on other people---aka government. Fools SHOULD be fleeced! How else are they to learn NOT to be foolish?

You may not like creative destruction, but it “likes” you.

So, enjoy it, because the next three months are going to include the most amazingly naked examples of this, as Romney uses all his creativity to destroy Obama, and vice versa.

No limits---total warfare, politically.

The lesson---wake up, Americans!

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 2:07PM

In part, I agree with you, but if you think Romeny is going to try to destroy Obama, you haven't been following his very tepid campaign.

George True| 8.13.12 @ 12:09PM

Griz wins. He has posed the question that must not be asked.

Mind you all, I like and respect both Romney and Ryan. I think this duo is about as good a ticket as we could have hoped for, and their chances of winning are good. And who wins really does matter, because if the Manchurian Marxist wins, then he will be making the next two or three supreme court picks, and the supreme court will become a Marxist kangaroo show trial court. If Romney is making the picks, at least our country would still have a chance of not becoming a socialist gulag.

But in order to prevent a complete meltdown of the dollar, Romney/Ryan along with a Republican controlled house and senate would need to almost immediately cut total government expenditures by at least 40%. The only way to do that is to massively cut back government programs and possibly eliminate entire government departments. I do not see that happening, even with R&R at the helm.

And short of that, it is not a matter of IF, but only a matter of WHEN the dollar becomes devalued by at least 30-60% or more. When that happens, your IRA/401k or other retirement savings becomes devalued by the same amount, and the currency you get paid in buys only half or a third as much. It would be Argentina 2001. In short, most of us will be ruined financially, and life will get a mot more difficult for almost everyone.

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 12:22PM

Thanks, George - you put it very well.

Look at Romney's campaign ads - they really play on the prevailing false consciousness that doesn't remotely resemble our fiscal reality. If we just elect him, things will be better. Growth will return, we'll get the debt under control and it'll be morning in America again.

None of that is true. Humpty Dumpty is shattered. It is over for the West - demographically, spiritually, culturally and, especially, economically.

You can't change the past, and our destruction is in the past; only the fallout is in the future.

And even if Romney somehow magically forestalled the inevitable (and, as I say, the ONLY way that's going to happen is printing money, which is a denial of reality), it'll make a lot of people very unhappy and very poor. Which means Democrats sweep the 2014 congressional elections and another Democrat sociopath gets ushered into office in 2016.

That's IF America lasts till 2016. By then, I'm thinking we'll be living Lord of the Flies.

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 12:32PM

SHUT STUPID DEFEATIST!!!

You are the whining, crying survivor in the lifeboat screaming, "We're all gonna die! We're all gonna die!"

You have failed, you have given in to cowardice and despair, and now you want to take others with you. Your despair wants to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Well, I say to hell with you and your cowardly ways.

Shut up and let the rest of us take of you, you simpering, unhelpful twit. Get the HELL out of the way.

Be gone sissy boy!

George True| 8.13.12 @ 1:07PM

You are not understanding what Griz is saying. I am sure he will enthusiastically pull the lever for R&R, as will I, and do everything we can to encourage others to do so as well.

But in the end, even with the Republicans in control of everything, if government expenditures are not cut almost in half permanently, we will see within the next few years a cataclysmic meltdown of the currency, and thus the economy, that will make 2007-2008 seem mild by comparison. It is simple math, and it is an inescapable fact. And to state it is not being defeatist, it is simply being real.

We either continue to engage in quantitative easing to infinity, or we default on our debt. Either will cause a massive devaluation in the currency we get paid in and an equivalent devaluation of any savings we have. The only difference is defaulting on our debt would cause an immediate devaluation of the dollar, whereas QE to infinity (printing money) will forestall the devaluation for a little longer.

Every month our government pays 40% of its expenses with monopoly money. This cannot continue that much longer. And something that cannot continue.....won't.

I am a lifelong card carrying Republican since age 21. I like Romney and really like Paul Ryan. But unless they, along with congress, trim government expenditures 40% permanently, we are all still going to go over the cliff.

CJW| 8.13.12 @ 1:43PM

So what's the bottom line, do nothing and let Obama win and insure our ruin?
You cannot give up, need to vote for Romney and for a Republican congress, and also you local and state elections.
You want idiots that "think" like purpie, jack in wi, aware, and the rest, running the country?

George True| 8.13.12 @ 2:02PM

Read the first paragraph of my post that you are responding to. Yes of course, we do everything we can do, individually and collectively, to elect Republicans and kick out Commiecrats at all levels of government in November.

Just don't be under any illusions as to where we really stand fiscally.

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 2:06PM

Do whatever you like. Prepare for the future, I'd say. By all means, vote for Romney, be active in the Tea Party, live your life as you have done.

My point is not that I want idiots like Obama running the country. The fact that he was elected in the first place shows the extent of the rot that has infected the edifice of American Exceptionalism; if his rise to power isn't a clear death knell of the heart and soul of America, I don't know what is.

You know, even Reagan didn't really change the trajectory of liberalism in this country. And he had a mandate and was elected in far less polar times.

There are now more people in the cart than there are pulling it. We no longer live in the America of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. We live in a banana republic.

Romney's election will not change anything. The time will come to pay the piper, and pay it we will. What goes up must come down. And we are in the midst of several Government-created bubbles: Student loans, the stock market, the re-inflation of the housing bubble, and of course a fiat currency bubble.

The Keynesian fantasies in which we have indulged for the sake of political expediency have only one end.

Boar Hunter| 8.13.12 @ 2:06PM

“I am sorry to say I do doubt the honesty of many men that are called good at home, that have given themselves up to serve a party. I am no man's man. I bark at no man's bid. I will never come and go, and fetch and carry, at the whistle of the great man in the white house, no matter who he is. And if this petty, un-patriotic scuffling for men, and forgetting principles, goes on, it will be the overthrow of this one happy nation, and the blood and toil of our ancestors will have been expended in vain.” David Crockett.

With the upmost respect and deference to my friend Drunken Sailor, men like Davy Crockett are the reason I hold Romney and the rest of the Republican party in such disdain.

Davy Crockett also said;

"Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it."

I believe the truth of the unsustainable policies we have engaged in, in order to appease the Morlock's, has finally started rolling toward us like a tsunami. Romney's election may amount to no more than a sandcastle on the beach.

Though it saddens me greatly, I believe Grzmlyk speaks the truth.

Drunken Sailor| 8.13.12 @ 3:24PM

Boar Hunter,
I understand your anguish but have faith. Remember, Davy went down fighting, should you do any less?

Who Knows?| 8.13.12 @ 12:16PM

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

I’m as cynical and jaded as most people, but I have a feeling there’s something new in the political air.

Usually, the veep is irrelevant. However, remember 2010 and the Tea Party.

I think Romney is a quick study, so that HE is more educable than the regular presidential candidate. So, it wouldn’t surprise me if HE proves to be an exception to the “can’t teach an old dog new tricks” saying.

After all, he prides himself on doing what works. The key word is “works”. At heart, he seems to be a business “wonk” and we know Ryan is a political wonk.

Who would have thought that the hippie slogan, “Power to the people!”, would end up being used by a true grassroots uprising, the Tea party, led by a Mormon and a Catholic?

R & R are going to expand on the theme, “Had enough?”, in various forms, so I look for Mitt and Paul to regularly put it to the people---“If you want four more years of even MORE big government, Obama’s your guy.”

Crystal clarity is the sharp point of the truth-telling “spear” that’s being unleashed---and, it couldn’t happen to an un-nicer guy than BHO, or soon enough!

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 12:31PM

Romney's commitment to doing "what works" is what gave massachusetts Romneycare. He will bend over backwards to "reach across the aisle." Count in it. You can't take things away from people and not have them squeal like stuck pigs. Hence Ryan's very light reform, which promises to shore up what is fundamentally an unsustainable, and immoral, entitlement program. Romney's no fool - he's not going to get up there and tell the people he's taking money out of their pockets. He'll take it out the old-fashioned, surreptitious way: Via inflation.

The truth is, Who Knows, with 45 million on food stamps, 100 million on some kind of government welfare and countless millions working for local, state and Federal goverment, most people DO want more big government. Obama was elected because that's what America wanted. Most people do not want freedom. Most people who put that SOB in the White House think the New York Times and NPR tell the truth.

My only consolation is that, once the whole rotten house of cards come down, they'll be shocked to realize that Terry Gross wasn't the pied piper of perpetual progressive perfection after all.

DTOM| 8.13.12 @ 12:35PM

Grm;

The Obama campaign's last hope is to dispirit the conservative vote in an effort to depress turnout. Which is exactly what you are doing with your hopelessness.

I call you out as TROLL!!!! Soros's checks haven't started bouncing yet, have they?

Get lost, LOSER!

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 12:55PM

Give me a break, DTOM. I used to be a regular on this site, and I'm a die hard conservative with some libertarian (mostly economic) leanings.

If you want to deny reality, be my guest. But it is reality.

I'm going to vote, by the way. As I said, if you read my earlier post, I actually like Ryan and I even think Romney has some advantages. But a Veep isn't the president, and a president can't undo what has been done.

Let me ask you this: if you go to a doctor, and he tells you you have Stage Four cancer, are you going to castigate him as being a dispirited pessimist?

I'm sorry if reality is unpalatable to you. But that doesn't mean it's not reality.

CJW| 8.13.12 @ 1:45PM

Mr G
You are one of favorite bloggers here. Do not give up. Just picture: four more years of looking at Obama, Michele, Biden, Pelosi, Reid all gloating.
That should scare you straight. Sorry for the image, but had to do it.

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 2:30PM

Hey, CJW: I very much want Obama out - hell, I want Obama rotting in prison because I think he's a traitor. I also happen to think that every single moron who voted for him in 2008 is guilty of treason.

You are absolutely right that the thought of seeing that bunch makes me ill. But after Obama, Michele, Biden, Pelosi and Reid will come the next wave of destroyers. The Debbie Wasserman Schultzes and Rachel Maddows of the world. It is far easier to destroy than it is to create.

But, unfortunately, all a Romney victory means is is that the ship of state will slip below the waves under his watch; he'll be blamed if he tries to make serious inroads in the debt. Which means people like DTOM will say, how dare you stop the party! Keep the punch bowl full! We'll never collapse because we are America, dammit!

You know, Rome thought it would never fall. So did Egypt. So did Greece. So did Austria-Hungary. So did Great Britain. They all fell. Every empire falls. In spite of the people saying, "hey, wait a minute! If we just turn that frown upside down, maybe Rome won't get sacked again!"

Stkman| 8.13.12 @ 3:32PM

Grzmluk,
You are being too pessimistic. I don't totally disagree with much of what you are saying, however none of us know the future.
Reagan was know as the great comminucator. Romney will need to do the same thing. Understand what all Texans and border state folks know, what's the first thing an illegal immigrant says whne he crosses the border? Answer, I sure hope they start enforcing the laws and I'm the last one across. He sdays that because he wants to keep the job he hopes to get and not have another illegal come up and undercut his price for the work.
Who ever is President is going to have to say thoe on welfare, "some of you are about to be cut from the program as we can't afford it with so many of you on it". You'll see how quickly peop[le start turning in the frauds once they think they are about to lose their subsidy.
Once someone gets up and finally explains it in plain terms that there are more people collecting than paying, that the well is running dry and that no one will collect, it will start changing.
We will also finally need to tell black Americans no more free ride and not be ashamed to tell them that.

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 5:25PM

Skman, you may disagree with me - in fact, believe it or not, I'd rather be wrong and have my ego bruised for a day than be proven right and have to fight for food in the streets.

But it is NOT a matter of pessimism. It is a matter of the $700 trillion in unfunded liabilities we have in this country.

How do you think we're going to pay that? Supply side economics a la Art Laffer ain't gonna cut it; symbolic cuts in the famous "waste fraud and abuse" - which never occur anyway - ain't gonna cut it. Certainly tax increases aren't going to cut it.

The truth is, there is NO WAY we can meet our fiscal obligations. If you think we can pay out what is in effect 5 times of this year's GDP in entitlements, I'd love to know how you think we're going to come up with this money.

There is one way, and only one way, governments in sovereign debt crises pay down these debts: With debauched currency. INFLATION. Inflation is an insidious tax on the people.

Haven't you noticed that cities all over the US are going bankrupt? The price of gas is at $3.60 and going up even though, according to the International Energy Agency, net demand has gone down since 2008? Have you noticed food prices? Utility prices? Cable TV prices? They're all going up. The massive inflation is already underway.

Wanna know why I'm "pessimistic?" Below are just a few reasons.

DRed| 8.13.12 @ 6:09PM

700 trillion in unfunded liabilities is a huge number. Where do you get that from?

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 5:32PM

This is by a guy named Michael Snyder, who compiled these fact for "Beforeitsnews.com." I found it reprinted on "economicnoise.com," the Web site for the Mont Pelerin Society, which is an international organization composed of economists (including 8 winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences), philosophers, historians, intellectuals, business leaders, and others who favour classical liberalism. Its founders included Friedrich Hayek, Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises, George Stigler, and Milton Friedman.

It's far too long to post here, but there are 41 inconvenient facts about our economy. Please have a gander.

http://www.economicnoise.com/2.....onal-debt/

George True| 8.13.12 @ 1:22PM

DTOM, relax pal. Griz has been a regular here as long as I can remember, and I have been here a long time. His conservative credentials are well established. He is not a troll.

Pecos Pete| 8.13.12 @ 1:44PM

Ditto.

Grzmlyk| 8.13.12 @ 1:59PM

Thank you, all; DTOM appears to have lost his mind.

There is a big difference between someone who looks at reality and says, this is reality, and someone who looks at reality and says, I'm not going to believe this because I don't want to.

DTOM seems to think like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail - even after being shorn of all of his limbs, he vows to fight on - ignoring reality.

It pains me to say this. It pained me when the woman I loved in my youth broke up with me. But I had to bow to reality - she didn't feel the same way about me that I did about her. Believing otherwise wasn't going to change it.

When football team is losing 42-0 and has the ball with :05 left in the game, they know they can't possibly win. It's a mathematical impossibility.

I will absolutely vote for Romney - as I've said, and DTOM doesn't seem to understand the English language, I actually like him in some ways. But NO politician can fix this.

JONVIL| 8.13.12 @ 2:08PM

With great angst I agree

JONVIL| 8.13.12 @ 2:11PM

I quit, this response is nowhere near where I posted it

Kingofthenet| 8.13.12 @ 12:33PM

Florida is toast, no Senior in their right mind is going to vote for Ryan, without Florida the Electoral map looks like this, assuming the President loses EVERY other swing state(He Won't):

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZO1v.....yanMap.jpg

Who Knows?| 8.13.12 @ 12:41PM

Your boast is toast.

Read John Podhoretz today. Medicare, according to Ryan's plan, won't change for anyone over 51, until 2014 or so.

Let the mediscare wars begin.

pogybait| 8.13.12 @ 1:04PM

Yes, let the war of ideas and concepts begin and who better to articulate these than Ryan. When the attacks begin, the Democrats have to explain themselves and their ideas...what a better way to contrast both sides instead of personal attacks....and for that matter I have learned more about Ryan's affiliations, history, or family in the last twenty four hours than Obama's past and Ryan hasn't even written a single bio....I don't believe the other side has any idea of where they are headed when it comes time to really debate the issues at hand......

Indy| 8.13.12 @ 1:31PM

Do seniors want IPAB? I think not

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....nley-kurtz

Oh and it might be worth noting seniors have children and grandchildren who are paying / will pay into Medicare / SSI andwould see reduced benefits at best, grandchildren will not see any benefits, do you think they want that for their grandchildren? Ryan has a mother who is on Medicare, do you really think he wants to destroy it? His plan has no changes for those 55+, FL voters need to get the facts, it's up to RR, the GOP and ordinary citizens to make the case, the media and the Dems will continue to lie.

Who Knows?| 8.13.12 @ 1:00PM

Anybody else notice that Romney sounds like George Herbert Walker Bush when he says "Im Mitt Romney, and I approved this ad."?

Kingofthenet| 8.13.12 @ 2:24PM

This is a Palin pick, a 'Hail Mary' for Willard. I gotta admit, I was worried, I figured people would forget about the 'Steaming Pile' Bush left Obama on election day, and BLAME the President for less than impressive economy, but this 'Tea Party' pick changes the focus NICELY, We can NOW talk about Entitlement Reform, Deficit Reduction Strategies, and making the Tax System more Regressive...Check and Mate

Oldefarte| 8.13.12 @ 3:06PM

KOTN, better tell ya boys to begin to bend over, grap their socks and kiss their youknowhats goodbye, because the political judgement day will be 11/6/12. Get ready!!!!!!!!!!!

Skippy| 8.13.12 @ 6:30PM

The Steaming Pile will be back in his Chicago toilet in January.
Flushed!

spike59| 8.14.12 @ 6:44AM

the Obamanure is circling the drain

Old ChooChoo| 8.13.12 @ 7:44PM

President Obama, whose re-election just got much easier by Romney's choice for VP, can lean back and relax.

And after Romney's defeat, Paul Ryan will be left standing as the voice of a smaller and even more limited Republican Party heading into 2016.

We've moved way too far to the right, folks. Way too far.

spike59| 8.14.12 @ 6:45AM

it may seem that way to those of you sheeple grazing out in left field...

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Gary B| 8.13.12 @ 10:34AM

Gary B| 8.13.12 @ 10:40AM

Kingofthenet| 8.13.12 @ 12:42PM

canuckistani| 8.13.12 @ 12:58PM

Gary B| 8.13.12 @ 1:01PM

Oldefarte| 8.13.12 @ 2:35PM

Doctor Right| 8.13.12 @ 3:14PM

Gary B| 8.13.12 @ 1:03PM

Stephanie| 8.13.12 @ 7:58AM