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Noemie Emery says with their record of prognostication, it is a good sign the Dems are pleased with the Ryan pick.
Liberal pundits, liberals, the Obama machine and Obama himself all call Paul Ryan a disastrous pick for vice president. That looks like a good sign for the Mitt Romney ticket, given the multiple records Team Obama has set since 2009 for making bad forecasts, losing elections and in general getting things wrong.
They said Obama was a transformational leader who was about to ring in the next great liberal era; that the conservative movement was dead for the next quarter-century; and that the Democratic majority, “emerging” since the late 1990s, was now finally being born. They said a crisis was a bad thing to waste, and instead they got wasted. They said a crisis would make people turn to the state, but they turned against it. They said the stimulus would keep unemployment under 8 percent and voters would love it. Unemployment has been above 8 percent for 40-plus months in succession, and voters did not.
They said people would come to love health care (they didn’t), and that people wouldn’t resent or remember the way that they’d passed it (they did). They said the Tea Party was “Astroturf,” “racist” and would destroy the Republican Party. But it was authentic; it embraced and elected blacks, Hispanics and women; it gave the GOP a bumper crop of magnetic new leaders and led it to a succession of wins.
Meanwhile, Obama lost both his touch and his bearings, and every campaign he came near. He couldn’t sell the stimulus or health care to voters. He campaigned for Creigh Deeds (blown away by Bob McDonnell), for Jon Corzine (blown away by Chris Christie) and for Martha Coakley (blown away by Scott Brown.) His party was blown away in the 2010 midterms, losing the House and many statehouses, whose occupants began turning right. …
Roger Simon says this was the week of the dumb Democrat.
This is the week when Democrats have sounded dumb — or hard of hearing.
I’m not just talking about Joe Biden, who always seems that way, or Maureen Dowd, who yesterday opined Paul Ryan was the smiliest (read: most attractive) politician to be so “cruel.” We can put that down to projection on the part of Ms. Dowd, who has made her living for the better part of thirty years now by being cruel to as many people as possible.
No, I’m talking about Democrats in general who are doing their best to misunderstand everything Paul Ryan says or has said, so that they don’t have to acknowledge that he might make sense (or that he had a Democratic co-sponsor for his budget plan they continually excoriate as “radical” without delineating what it is). That way they also don’t have to admit that they don’t have a plan of their own to deal with the imminent entitlement collapse or anything else budgetary for that matter and that their ideology is in such a rapid decline that no one publicly supports it any more. …
Ed Morrissey says Romney’s Ryan bet has already paid off.
When Mitt Romney announced that Rep. Paul Ryan, the sometimes-controversial chair of the House Budget Committee would be his running mate, the media reaction was one of surprise. Most gave Romney credit for boldness, which by itself contrasted with the received wisdom of Romney as a conservative-in-strategy, risk-averse politician. The New York Daily News, not exactly known for its conservative point of view, called the selection a “boldly clarifying jolt,” while Bloomberg’s editors praised Romney for “audacity.” Both newspapers in Tampa, Florida, where Republicans will hold their convention and in the state where the election may well be decided, called the choice of Ryan “surprisingly bold” and “a powerful statement.”
That’s not to say that the media failed to notice the risks of being “bold.” Most of the analysis focused on how Romney had put at risk swing states like Florida and Ohio by choosing a man best known for his plan to reform entitlement programs, which would scare seniors away from the Republican ticket. Others wondered why Romney would risk distracting attention from jobs and the economy to make Medicare – a reliable Democratic issue – the main focus of the election. Surely this would allow Barack Obama to take the high road, analysts concluded, and engage in a fight over the very vision of the American system of government, a fight Romney would almost certainly lose.
In other words, Romney took a big gamble with Ryan in two ways – in betting that Obama wouldn’t take the challenge for a substantive debate, and that voters will know the difference. A few days later, it’s clear that Romney won the first bet, and is at least ahead on the second. …
Yuval Levin says Obamacare has changed everything.
… President Obama has put Democrats in the position of being the party that seeks to cut current seniors’ benefits (especially those in Medicare Advantage) and access to care (thanks to the IPAB) while still allowing the program to collapse in the coming years and so watching the deficit explode and bringing on fiscal disaster. And Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have put the Republicans in the position of being the party that wants to protect current seniors’ benefits and make them available to future seniors while still saving the program from collapse in the coming years and so dramatically reducing the deficit and averting fiscal disaster.
Whether you’re now a senior and concerned about your health coverage, are younger and worry if you’ll have affordable coverage when you retire, or are most concerned about the nation’s fiscal health and economic future, the Democrats offer you a very bad deal on Medicare and the Republicans offer you a good one.
The Democrats still don’t see that, and think that turning to Medicare in the wake of Ryan’s selection will yield great political rewards. Perhaps Romney and Ryan should inform them of how the two parties actually stand on the issue. And they might think about informing some voters as well.
CBS affiliate in Roanoke tells us about the bakery owner who told the Vice President to take a hike.
Would you say no to the Vice President?
One New RiverValley business owner turned Vice President Joe Biden down. To see video of the story, click here.
This might happen more than you think from both political parties, most businesses just don’t talk about it. The owner of “Crumb and Get It” – did.
Chris McMurray’s bakery has been open only since May, barely three months.
Wednesday morning, advance teams for Vice President Joe Biden walked in. …
The Secret Service liked what they heard about the bakery.
Secret Service officers associated with Vice President Joe Biden bought a pile of cupcakes from the baker who refused to host Biden at his shop — and they did so out of gratitude.
It’s a startling news nugget at the bottom of a local report. “[S]hortly after Crumb and Get It told Biden’s advance people ‘no’ — the secret service walked in and told [owner] Chris McMurray ”Thanks for standing up and saying ‘no’ — then they bought a whole bunch of cookies and cupcakes,” according to the Valley Reporter (Va.).
McMurray refused to host the Biden entourage as a protest of Obama’s comment, made in the nearby town of Roanoke, that “if you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.”
The Secret Service’s purchase proved to be a herald of things to come, as Virginia locals rewarded McMurray with a rush of business this morning. The bakery ran out of food by 1:15 pm.
The Roanoke Times summed it up.
… Gary Harris, a Vietnam War veteran and commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 776 who lives in Radford, said he picked up some “freedom cookies” to support Crumb and Get It. Like Moore, it was his first visit to the bakery.
“He spoke up for what he believed in,” Harris said. “I heard somewhere that it may help or hurt his business. He shouldn’t be penalized for speaking his opinion, I’m going to help him out all I can.”
Ron Witt, an insurance agent from Pearisburg, said, “I saw the story on television and I thought, I have to stop by and support these people … It’s not political at all. It’s more a matter of principle. He just stood up for himself. It doesn’t have anything to do with the current administration or politics, at least for me.”
Eddie Boes of Blacksburg got the last batch of cookies before Crumb and Get It ran out of dough. Like Witt, Boes said he wanted to support a local businessman’s right to speak his mind.
“It’s a matter of not being afraid of the pressure,” Boes said. “A lot of people aren’t going to say what they think because they’re worried about retribution.”
But Boes said that because McMurray took a stand for his beliefs, he’s being rewarded with much more support from customers than he would have if he’d agreed to play host to Biden for a photo opportunity.