Romney and Ryan draw Lightening
"Opinion"08/11/2012
Paul Munnis
In choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney has erected a poorly grounded metal lightening antenna in a time of a serious thunderstorm. He is sure to attract unwanted lightening strikes to his campaign. Ben Franklin showed the consequences of this behavior but he had the sense not to use metal wire for his kite string. Romney is not showing that same common-sense in selecting Ryan as a running mate.
"WAIT," you say; "Ryan is a Tea Party darling. They LOVE Ryan."
Well, you might recall that the thing that instigated the tea party movement was over Medicare. They wanted to keep their Medicare Advantage Program and they feared that Obama Care would take away the Medicare Advantage program.
Now Ryan wants to muddy up the Medicare waters. We'll see how he fares with that.
Seniors are going to oppose anyone who would replace Medicare with a voucher program or to water the program down using a lightening strike of their own. His attempts to modify his plan will have people so confused it will be seen as a swizzling of the seniors and they will reject all of the nonsense to keep what they have and understand.
We predict that Republicans and the healthcare industry will reject the Ryan plan because it means less income for them.
The combination of confused seniors and unhappy businesses will end the Romney bid while further splitting the GOP.
Since Paul Ryan is a re-do of Jack Kemp style failed GOP economics and Romney/Ryan seek a return to those failed economic ideas then they have set themselves up for certain failure. Economists like Paul Krugman should be salivating as they take fingers to keyboard.
Democrats are ecstatic at Romney's choice of Paul Ryan and his Medicare displacement plan combined with his defective budget plan that will have the effect of showcasing Obama Care as the height of quality medical care for Seniors while allowing Liberals the opportunity to argue that Medicare for all Americans is a logical future for America.
Now Obama can swoop in with his deficit cutting agenda and end this Republican budget mischief. We can hold the budgeting for 2013 over until the new Congress is seated.
Minnesotans are relieved that Tim Pawlenty is off center stage and that Wisconsin's Paul Ryan is the new Romney campaign lightening rod. The thought of Pawlenty as President of the United States is enough to make most Minnesotans gag. We remember the mess that he made of our State in taxes, education, and transportation, and we are still trying to recover from it.
Obama can now focus on the Convention and upcoming presidential debates knowing that he is entering the final rounds of the election cycle well positioned with solid plans for his second term. The economy is crawling back to a solid American future as Obama and his team lead us through rough water, failed national currencies, and do it without any help from Republicans in Congress.
The ball is now firmly in the court of the grass roots part of the Democratic Party to get out the vote. It should be an easy sell as Ryan brings a fresh portfolio of anti-Republican talking points for Democrats to address.
Romney is playing to Democratic Party strength by choosing economics as the central topic in this election. Republicans have run up the debt, created the deficit, caused the economic crash, and want a license to repeat their mistakes. Now it's the voters turn to "Just Say NO!" to Republicans.
Meantime much of the Romney Super PAC funds will be diverted to trying to protect Paul Ryan from a thunder bolt from above and senior anger from Earth. Even the tea party are likely to join hands with Democrats over the bad choice of Paul Ryan and thus oppose Ryan-o-nomics.
This should wrap up the implosion of the Republican Party and it is fitting that National Healthcare, a subject that Romney should have had the high ground on and failed GOP economics, are topics that finishes off the Republican Party. A few secondary bursts lie ahead at the Republican convention and the presidential debates, but Romney is finished with this bad choice of added baggage to his campaign.