The Spectacle Blog
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republicans “have to be smart” in opposing President Obama, Wscionsin Rep. Paul Ryan said Saturday in a speech to the National Review Summit.
“If we play into his hands, we will betray the voters who supported us — and the country we mean to serve,” said Ryan, the House Budget Committee Chairman who was the Republican vice presidential candidate last year. “We can’t let that happen. We have to be smart. We have to show prudence.”
Speaking to some 700 conservatives gathered at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Ryan warned that Obama “will bait us. He’ll portray us as cruel and unyielding. … The way he tells it, it’s the president — and only the president — who’s trying to fix our bridges, to feed our children, to care for seniors, to clean our water. … But we can’t get rattled. We won’t play the villain in his morality plays. We have to stay united. We have to show that — if given the chance — we can govern. We have better ideas.”
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C Bowen | 1.26.13 @ 4:01PM
The still invite Paul TARP Ryan to conservative gatherings in DC? I thought that loser was officially back in the RINO camp after his fiscal cliff capitualtion.
RJ| 1.26.13 @ 4:19PM
Swell, who is going to disagree that we have to be smart in opposing Octobama? Now what do we do? We know that Octobama won by appealing to citizens who do not pay much attention to politics and get their "news" from the Comedy Channel, other entertainment media and the major networks, which have clearly jumped the shark when it comes to objective reporting. Looks to me that the conservatives need to develop their own news and entertainment outlets and should never let an opportunity pass in ridiculing wasteful government spending projects, such as Harry Reid's famous "cowboy poetry festival." It is a target rich environment.
RCV| 1.26.13 @ 11:48PM
And Mr. Ryan did such a swell job in the campaign convincing Americans that the GOP was fit to govern.
PCPSmokerII| 1.27.13 @ 1:12AM
Funny how this latest offensive from the GOP comes after the third weak deal they made. Those internal polls must look disastrous.
Mike G| 1.27.13 @ 11:35AM
"We have better ideas."
If only some Republican had the cujones to stand up for them--and maybe someone to explain them to our ignorant electorate.
Oldefarte| 1.27.13 @ 4:19PM
No, it's not [and never was] about what Republicans need to do, but rather what the American people need to do [which is grow brain cells and think, which may be an impossibility]!!!!
Dai Alanye | 1.28.13 @ 12:23PM
These comments--and I don't mean Paul Ryan's--seem to come straight out of the Pessimists' Club.
Fiscal| 1.28.13 @ 2:15PM
As long as Ryan and other party leaders refuse to be specific about Medicare and Social Security cuts and not account for the 40% of the federal budget that needs to be cut, they will be playing into Obama's hands. In addition, they must also support cuts in the defense's bloated budget and not support defense programs just because they provide jobs in their district. Once they support that level of pork, you can throw "principles" in the waste dump.
The truth is also that under Ryan's plan, healthcare will be rationed -- not by the government, but by the inability of grandma to pay for staying alive.
While most media is liberal, Fox News is a big part of the problem as it is difficult to find adult truths on that network. Thus, they become the fodder for jokes as the left just needs to show what they actually say. That makes independents sway towards the left because they don't want to be associated with those nitwits.
You need to be adult and honest to be a fiscal conservative, and you can't find those traits among right wing politicians. We know the left wants to buy now and pay later, but without a reasoned alternative, how will voters choose otherwise?