So, to review the bidding: when Romney picked Ryan, Establishment Democrats (and their liberal lackeys) cackled in response that the GOP would now have to hide from the entire state of Florida, thanks to Mediscare. No way that they were going to go all-in, there.
Yeah, about that?
Not so much. Note the signs: generally speaking, ducking an issue – or state – does not mean ‘showing up in the symbolic epicenter of a supposed controversy. With your mom. And with a big honking sign stating your position being used for your camera backstop.’ In fact, that’s kind of the opposite of ducking. If anybody in that crowd didn’t know by the end of the speech that Paul Ryan wants to talk about Medicare, it’s because they were deaf, blind, and lacking someone to sign the speech into their hands.
Meanwhile, the President is… limiting the size of his rallies? Wait, what?
“We have plenty of time for big rallies,” a campaign spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said between the rallies on Thursday. “Our focus right now is on exciting our supporters and winning over undecided voters and the smaller and medium-size events are the best venue to accomplish that because the president can closely engage with the crowd.”
Via JMF. What makes this NYT article particularly entertaining is the date: August 9th. On August 11th Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan for the VP slot, and since then Romney-Ryan’s crowds (and donations*) have soared. Annnnnnd that’s why Romney kept his pick a secret for as long as he needed to (which is to say, until after the Friday papers came out)…
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*Somebody remind me in December to do a post on what the differences were between the Romney & McCain campaigns at this stage, particularly our reaction to their respective VP picks. I’d do one now, except that I think that I’d rather wait until writing that post won’t give the opposition party potentially valuable campaign data.
This is particularly amusing because by August 13, the DCCC was sending out emails begging for $3 based on the huge Romney/Ryan crowd sizes.
$750M raised in 2008 by Obama = hope and change
Romney outraising Obama for 3 months = GOP buying the election
Large crowds in 2008 = hope and change
Smaller crowds in 2012 = exactly where we want to be
I wish I were surprised.
I was at that event yesterday. Not only does Paul Ryan have two first names, he’s one hell of a speaker. Love him. Can’t wait for him to become VP!
OT- I’ve been waiting for a post about polling to ask, but I don’t want to wait anymore…We know that pollsters have been skewing results with odd D+ models (D+13…really?), but I saw an automated phone poll with a M/F ratio of 54% F to 46% M. With the well known M/F gap between D’s and R’s, I was wondering what the actual M/F ratio is in voting and/or registration? The poll in question did not list the D/R/I split, but if the ratio is more like F+2 not F+8 that might explain some of the inconsistancies we’re seeing. Thanks for info you might be able to scrounge up.