With Ryan Speech, Romney Campaign Goes Full Tea Party
With Ryan Speech, Romney Campaign Goes Full Tea Party
The VP pick channeled Ayn Rand and declared ideological warfare—signaling that Romney won't pivot to the middle.—By David Corn Wed Aug. 29, 2012 11:49 PM PDT
If there is a bedrock of
conventional wisdom in presidential politics, it is this: First, succeed
in the primaries by winning over the base, and then move to the center
in the general election to court independent and middle-of-the-road
voters. So where is Mitt Romney's pivot to the center?
Throughout his political career, Romney has demonstrated a high
degree of flexibility. But he has yet to employ those skills as the
final stage of this presidential slog begins. And with Rep. Paul Ryan's
fiery speech at the GOP convention on Wednesday night, it was clear that
Romney did not pick Ryan to appeal to the undecideds in the middle. The
speech was an indication that the Romney crew has gone rogue—or
completely tea party.
Speaking with poise and brimming with coçky confidence, Ryan took the
predictable shots, deriding the stimulus and Obamacare. He devoted a
long riff to the unfounded Romney charge
that President Obama cut $716 billion from Medicare. He blasted Obama
for not being serious about deficit reduction, going as far as to chide
Obama for not fully embracing the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles deficit
reduction plan that Ryan and other Republicans refused to support
(because it called for modest tax hikes on the well-to-do). Before the
pumped-up crowd of GOP delegates, Ryan blamed the closure of a GM plant in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin,
on Obama's policies—though the factory was shuttered before Obama
became president. He did not refer to the successful auto industry
bailout.
On Medicare, Ryan repeated the familiar GOP whine that Democrats are
demagogues when they assail Ryan's budget plan for ending the Medicare
guarantee. "We want this debate," he proclaimed. "We will win this
debate.".
more http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/ryan-speech-romney-tea-party
