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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe GOP's down-ballot anxiety (Republicans trying to run away from Ryan's budget)
By Steve Benen
When a party's presidential ticket comes together, one of the first considerations is whether that ticket has a better chance of winning in November. But what about the candidates a little further down on the ballot?
...Republicans in and outside of Washington also privately expressed concern that [Paul Ryan] gives Democrats an all-too-easy way to make the 2012 election about a set of conservative ideas that have faced decidedly mixed results at the ballot box. Ryan's wonky appeal may have won over the Beltway, but selling a Medicare overhaul to voters in, say, Florida, is an altogether different task.
"We might as well have just picked a random Heritage Foundation analyst," said one GOP strategist involved in the 2012 campaign. "The good news is that this ticket now has a vision. The bad news is that vision is basically just a chart of numbers used to justify policies that are extremely unpopular."
National Journal also reported that some Republican congressional campaigns have already conceded they expect to be playing defense in the fall as the political debate begins to focus tightly on still relatively obscure details of Ryan's plans to slash public spending."
A moderate Republican congressional candidate in Massachusetts responded to the Ryan news by distancing himself from the Ryan plan. Soon after, a GOP candidate in New York did the same thing, issuing a statement saying, "It has always been my position that I do not support the Ryan budget and its proposals regarding Medicare." In Connecticut, Senate hopeful Linda McMahon said something similar.
Expect to hear more of this. Democratic Senate candidates in Virginia, Arizona, and Nevada all pounced on the news of Mitt Romney's running mate by tying their GOP rivals to the unpopular Ryan budget agenda -- and that was mid-day Saturday. It's likely Dems will stay on the offensive through the fall, as Republicans are pressed to take a stand all over again on the wildly unpopular measures in the Ryan plan.
- more -
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/13/13258829-the-gops-down-ballot-anxiety
Mitt, you've outdone yourself!
Mitt Romney: Im Running With Paul Ryan, But Not On The Ryan Budget
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021110943
Breaking: Romney Staff Warned Him Not to Pick Ryan!!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021119215
Panasonic
(2,921 posts)Source: http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/112/house/1/277
235 Yeses. All Republicans voted for this EXCEPT the following:
Boehner-OH (DNV)
Dave Reichert-WA (DNV)
David McKinley-WV (No)
Denny Rehberg-MT (No)
Well, along with Boehner, the albatross of HR 277 also known as the Ryan Budget is going to be heavily weighed on the Republicans.
Plenty of ads to be made favoring the Democrats over the Republicans.
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)I am sure that the GOPPERs will run away from the Ryan budget until they get elected. Then they will pass something even far worse. They are natural born liars. We simply do not know what they really intend to do. Ryan's budget is actually a first draft of where they will start. They would just stop Medicaid, Food Stamps and other programs immediately. And it would not surprise me if they even demanded money back from recipients.
The GOP is much much more radical than they appear to be publicly. Their present public image is the kinder gentler GOP for voter consumption.