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The Spectacle Blog
Yesterday Rush Limbaugh was talking about a column written by Charles Krauthammer in which Charles was noting that
There are two ways to run against Barack Obama: stewardship or ideology….
If you run against Mr. Obama’s performance in contrast to your own competence, you stake your case on persona. Is that how you want to compete against an opponent who is not just more likable and immeasurably cooler, but spending millions to paint you as an unfeeling, out-of-touch, job-killing, private-equity plutocrat?
The ideological case, on the other hand, is not just appealing to a center-right country with twice as many conservatives as liberals, it is also explanatory. It underpins the stewardship argument. Mr. Obama’s ideology — and the program that followed — explains the failure of these four years.
This is exactly correct.
In fact, while Rush was modest, in case you’ve missed it Rush himself has spent year after year underlining the importance of understanding ideology to understand the left – or for that matter the right.
To pick Paul Ryan is to acknowledge that what Barack Obama has done is a function of understanding why he has done it.
Four years ago Sean Hannity took all kinds of grief for repeatedly focusing on Obama’s associations with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and the unrepentant bomber Bill Ayers. But there was a reason Hannity kept coming back to this. To sit in the pews of Jeremiah Wright for 20 years without a peep of disagreement about the far-left Wright doctrines of socialism and black theology, to begin a political campaign in the living room of the former Weatherman Bill Ayers and his leftist radical wife Bernadine Dohrn, all this was a sure sign that in some considerable measure Barack Obama was in fact a man of the far left.
In 2008 America, tired of George Bush, uninspired by John McCain, thrilled to finally break the color barrier in the presidency, allowed itself to see something in Barack Obama that he decidedly was not. This was not a man of some gauzy centrist fantasy of Hope and Change. Beneath it all, totally un-vetted by the liberal media, this was a hard core leftist who did indeed mean exactly what he said. Barack Obama wanted to transform America. Transform it from the historic America that is a land of freedom based on natural rights given from the hand of God – to a socialist “paradise” where your rights are decided by a Washington bureaucrat. A land where the tyranny of government is involved in every nook and cranny of life, running everything from your health care to your business to your church.
Paul Ryan, a former aide to the late Jack Kemp, a man who understands to his core the ideals of Ronald Reagan, is Barack Obama’s opposite in all the ways that count. He is in many ways the political son of Reagan and Kemp.
Governor Romney has scored a political ten strike. Within minutes of the Ryan news the Obama campaign was already forced to change it’s tune - moving away from slander to substance. They’ll be back with more of the slander, for sure. But now they will have to deal with substance - and somebody who knows that substance better than they do.
Bring on the Ryan-Biden debate.
The future begins now.
View all comments (35) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Jeffrey Lord
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/08/11/romneys-ten-strike
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JmsA| 8.11.12 @ 10:38AM
Spot on, Mr. Lord. Ideology is the key: Freedom and that which can only allow it to endure, or the impending run-away train of a disaster rolling on rails of a combined assault by the left on this country for decades.
Cobalt| 8.11.12 @ 11:25AM
As usual, Charles Krauthammer has provided us with a very astute analysis of the Romney-Obama battle for The White House.
Yes, Rush Limbaugh deserves much credit for his dedication and effort to defeat Obama, and he will definitely motivate his listeners to vote.
However, for the most part Limbaugh is preaching to the choir, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, the Romney-Ryan ticket must win the independent vote in order to defeat Obama in November.
Let's hope Ryan plays well with the independent voters, and with the "secret Democrats" who will vote their conscience in the privacy of the voting booth.
Obadiah Plainman| 8.11.12 @ 11:39AM
Great column. This is it in a nutshell....
Reggie Love| 8.11.12 @ 12:09PM
Paul Ryan is the modern day Jack Kemp.
Mimi | 8.11.12 @ 12:16PM
Mitt just turned things around on a dime ! Wow couldn't have come at a better time...What a great pick!
At least this morning this event got FULL MEDIA coverage...And Ryan's speech was one of his BEST
Yup a whole new ball-game starting today!....I was starting to get sick to my stomach over this race....The DEM'S lies were so blatent and they proudly admitted they were lies .....Amateurs, and adolescents are running their defeat with immoral methods.
Now the serious adults are in town....Mitt needed this attention and Ryan served up some professional help with his remarkable , truthful, encouraging , hopful and Patriotic words to all of America this day!!
CJW| 8.11.12 @ 12:55PM
Terrific pick. Ryan is smart, articulate, conservative, and understands economics, unlike obama/biden.
His speech was such a contrast to the idiocy of Biden and the gutter Chicago politics of Obama/Reid. Obama is afraid of Ryan because Ryan cleaned his clock in the discussions several years ago, and the Ryan-Biden debate should be cancelled on humanitarian grounds.
We should carry Wisconsin, and get more of the Catholic vote since he is RC.
Teflon93 | 8.11.12 @ 1:12PM
Well, not quite.
Ryan's ACU rating this session was only an 80; same as Tammy Faye Boehner's and no wonder---he was doing Boehner's bidding much of the session.
His lifetime ACU of 91.69 is bettered by fully 44% of the House and Senate Republicans.
Moreover, Ryan was less than stalwart in supporting Scott Walker in the recall election---here's an example of damning with faint praise:
http://mountpleasant.patch.com.....the-ballot
Marco Rubio, by way of contrast, has a perfect 100 ACU rating this session, including voting against the debt ceiling increase.
Ryan is the pick because Ryan has demonstrated he will do as he is told, as he demonstrated by voting for a requirement that companies seeking government contract agree to labor union demands; for Davis-Bacon union "prevailing wage" requirements; against rolling back spending to 2008 levels; for the debt ceiling increase; and for the omnibus appropriations bill.
Thus even on the issues conservatives think Paul Ryan would vote with them on he proved utterly unreliable.
aware| 8.11.12 @ 1:26PM
Yeah, he voted for TARP and No Child, too. But the neo cons are all aflutter and feeling tingles up their legs and won't listen to anything bad.
Teflon93 | 8.11.12 @ 1:51PM
Is there anything conservative pundits WON'T forgive from Republicans? How can you possibly claim to be a fiscal conservative and vote AGAINST stripping out the "emergency spending" David Obey jammed through from the baseline budget? How can you call yourself a serious economist while supporting labor unions?
Teflon93 | 8.11.12 @ 1:52PM
This is hugely disappointing because Jeff Lord is one of the last AmSpec pundits to stand against the GOP Establishment on behalf of conservative principles. I expect this crap from Kaminsky and Goldstein---they are GOP jersey-wavers period.
Ross Kaminsky| 8.11.12 @ 3:31PM
What part of "I haven't voted for a Republican for president for more than two decades" don't you understand?
I am not a "GOP jersey-waver" and have in the past been a registered Libertarian, though I am currently a registered Republican (so I can participate in the caucus process here.)
I am an unabashed fan of Paul Ryan, having supported him in his first race for Congress and having had the opportunity to have a beer with him and get to know him a little bit, as well as having interviewed him on the radio. He is a good an smart guy, and a great if somewhat risky addition to the ticket.
When is the last time you didn't vote for a Democrat for president (but did vote for someone)?
Teflon93 | 8.11.12 @ 3:50PM
2008, when I held my nose and voted for your guy McCain.
What part of Ryan's voting record this past session was about as conservative as Boehner's and included voting FOR Davis-Bacon "prevailing wage" requirements, FOR labor union concessions by prospective government contractors, AGAINST rolling back the budget to 2008 levels, FOR the debt ceiling increase, and for the omnibus spending bill do you not understand?
There's nothing libertarian about any of those. So what precisely leads us to believe that you're anything but a jersey-waver, Kaminsky?
You're voting pure GOP Establishment right now---and holding the coats of the Rockefeller wing in the process.
Teflon93 | 8.11.12 @ 3:52PM
And oh, by the way, I've never cast a ballot for a Democrat in my life, there having been no conservative Democrats to vote for on any ballot I've had. I didn't vote for Dole in 1996 either, writing in a conservative instead.
Ross Kaminsky| 8.11.12 @ 6:04PM
I did not vote for McCain. I said "if McCain represents winning then we've already lost" and that the only way the country will recognize the risk of socialism is to get it good and hard. So I'm quite comfortable even in retrospect.
So just how is my public refusal to support McCain in keeping with your characterization of me as a "jersey-waver"?
Ryan's voting record isn't perfect. But he's been the ONLY senior Republican to make a strong public case for entitlement reform.
Furthermore, although I will support Romney, I preferred Pawlenty and particularly Mitch Daniels on these very pages.
I don't care if you want to call the ticket "establishment." We have no other valid alternative.
aware| 8.11.12 @ 6:34PM
I don't get it. Why is Romney preferable over Obama but McCain wasn't? One neo con is just like another.
Ross Kaminsky| 8.11.12 @ 7:08PM
Because the nation has now learned, almost Atlas Shrugged-like, what Progressivism really is.
Also, while I hate Obama's Supreme Court picks, I am convinced that a McCain presidency would have meant that we would have cap-and-trade, which would be even worse than Obamacare.
aware| 8.12.12 @ 6:35AM
Too bad the "nation" still has to learn what right progressivism is. That's what this team is, big government Republican style.
Occam's Tool| 8.11.12 @ 10:44PM
Well, the way I see it in rural Minnesota, we have a traitor in the office of POTUS. Ryan/Romney may have faults, but they aren't traitors, nor do they hang around with two declared traitors (Dorhn and Ayers) or sit in the audience for 20 years while a third traitor preaches (Wright).
Obama doesn't have a decent human being in his White House, nor would he recognize one.
Ross Kaminsky| 8.11.12 @ 6:12PM
Nothing about Ryan's discussion of Gov. Walker in that link was "damning with faint praise."
Trinacria| 8.12.12 @ 2:48PM
Brilliant point, Tef, because it's an unassailable fact that the voting public consults the ACU ratings before pulling the lever.
Look sport, perhaps you hadn't noticed, but Jesus Christ isn't on the ballot this year. We therefore have a choice between flawed human beings. You can bitch and moan about the fact that they're flawed (which in the end gets you jack shit) or you can chose the lesser flawed humans. Your choice, but please be advised that there's little interest here in bitching and moaning.
Oldefarte| 8.11.12 @ 2:15PM
Absolutely Jeffrey....BRING IT ON, you domestic terrorists, perverts, community organizing liars, corrupt government welfare prividers, slanderers of the Americn public, radical Muslim sympathizers! Ol Delaware Jos beez a pee-peeing in his pantslegs right about now [oh excrement, I'm going to have to debate this guy?]. The lines are drawn as clear as when Jim Bowie die so within the Alamo dirt floor. Bring it on!!!!!!
Kingofthenet| 8.11.12 @ 2:43PM
I like Paul Ryan's Budget, as a Devout Christian I already have Heaps of Faith, I believe a guy with NO Boat building experience built the largest wooden boat EVER made and filled it with EVERY animal on Earth, than it rained a minimum of 348,024 inches of rain for 40 days and nights, Do you REALLY think 'Trickle Down' would be a stretch for me?
Teflon93 | 8.11.12 @ 2:49PM
Says the clown who believes that miracles happen so long as unionized government bureaucrats so decree.
Oldefarte| 8.11.12 @ 9:46PM
You must be referring to Spike Lee's declaration that Obama is the 'BLACK JESUS' right?????
Reggie Love| 8.11.12 @ 2:48PM
Paul Ryan's district is not a solid Republican one,by any means. It voted 51-47% for Obama in 2008. Of the 5 GOP held seats in that state,his is the least Republican. The district also had,in 2008 when the auto bailout occured,2 auto plants in the district. A GM plant in Janesville,Ryan's hometown,and a Jeep plant in Kenosha. So it would be pretty hard for him to vote against that.
Teflon93 | 8.11.12 @ 2:50PM
Having principles does make life difficult.
Ross Kaminsky| 8.11.12 @ 3:32PM
Teflon,
You sound like a person who is extremely afraid of what just happened. You should be afraid, given your idiotic and self-destructive support of an American tyranny.
Teflon93 | 8.11.12 @ 3:56PM
Kaminsky, you're a clown and a dishonest clown at that.
Unlike yourself, I supported fully half the GOP field this time: Bachmann, Cain, Santorum, and Perry, any of whom has a far more conservative record than Mittens. You're the one supporting the Establishment apparatchiks, none of whom will do a damned thing about the labor unions and entitlement whores bankrupting this country.
What I am afraid of is that somebody will listen to your statist crap and think---as George W Bush said---the conservative movement is dead. We'll be dead when we allow you RINO jocksniffers to write encomia to every novel restriction of our liberties the Ruling Class may devise.
Now get to a Tea Party rally and try to learn something.
Ross Kaminsky| 8.11.12 @ 6:09PM
Been to plenty of Tea Party rallies. Just spoke at a Tea Party event in Denver the other night. I did not support any of the ones you did, but not because of "establishment" stuff.
Bachmann had no chance. I did like Cain until the news that torpedoed him came out. Santorum is far too much of a social conservative for me, and Perry is not smart enough to be president, and should instead run for preacher.
Please tell me where I support anything even vaguely like statism. Talk about being a dishonest clown...you're making a fool of yourself.
For the record, I am a libertarian (or Objectivist), not a conservative, and have never claimed otherwise.
Finally, I defy you to show me any example of me championing a RINO...unless you call Paul Ryan a RINO, in which case readers already know that you are not to be taken seriously, though I think they know that already.
aware| 8.12.12 @ 12:02PM
"Please tell me where I support anything even vaguely like statism."
Supporting Romney is the best example of this, Ross. If you just ignore promises and pretty speeches and concentrate solely on what they DO(there is a record, you know), you will see they have NEVER done a single thing to reduce the State and have done plenty to enhance it.
Don't you ever get tired of fire or frying pan being the only "choices" allowed? The optimal part of "libertarian" is liberty and it is not even on the ballot in this race.
Oldefarte| 8.11.12 @ 9:52PM
Clint, did you shave your red curly hair and get out of jail in Colorado? How's that insanity pleas working for you? Still planning on attending any more Batman movies??????
Occam's Tool| 8.11.12 @ 10:46PM
Teflon 93 is not Clint. He is pro-Israel.
All this being said, the choice is between a scenario out of HP Lovecraft or a normal flawed human scenario starting in 2013. I'm not a big fan of living in Cthullu-ville, thanks. I'm voting for Romney.
JimH| 8.12.12 @ 8:25AM
As the bumper sticker says...Why settle for the lesser evil, vote for Cthulu. And Yog-Sototh for veep?
luv2ski| 8.13.12 @ 7:11AM
There is nothing about Ryan that concerns me. My worries are about the incompetent press and media folks running Romney's campaign. Where did he get them? From Bob Dole? JHC Mitt!! Get someone that knows how to wield a big club.
Minuteman78| 8.13.12 @ 5:33PM
I am stocking up on popcorn, waiting for the Ryan-Biden debate. It'll be like a Doctor debating surgical procedures with a 8-year old.