paul ryan – Page 2

Ryan/Biden debate: two word clouds, a YouTube video, and some idle speculation.

Via the Foundry comes these two word clouds of yesterday’s debate:

…and here’s an interesting game to play: quick, which one is which? Continue reading Ryan/Biden debate: two word clouds, a YouTube video, and some idle speculation.

#rsrh Barack Obama’s tepid reaction to Joe Biden’s debate performance.

Yeah, I’m thinking Barack Obama didn’t really think that Joe Biden saved the re-election campaign last night:

Continue reading #rsrh Barack Obama’s tepid reaction to Joe Biden’s debate performance.

My take on the debate.

Short version: if they were planning to get Joe Biden to save the campaign, well, they need a Plan C. It was not an exercise in applied brutality like last week’s debate; but I seem to remember that Joe Biden wasn’t this much of an asshole when he was debating Sarah Palin. That seems to have cost him among CNN’s undecided voters, who were generally meh towards the man.

One note: undecideds did react favorably to Biden on abortion. Keep that in mind.

Anyway… won’t move the needle on its own, which means that the GOP won on points. Ryan came across as knowing what the hell he was talking about, which is precisely the last thing that Joe Biden wanted to have happen. Forward!

Welcome to the new Media paradigm, Mister Gibbs.

It’s one where you get interrupted when you try to spin the stupid things that your candidates say.

For those without video, it shows: George Stephanopoulos (!) playing a clip of Joe Biden’s infamous ‘buried’ gaffe*; asking Robert Gibbs whether gaffes like this will hurt the Vice President in his upcoming debate with Paul Ryan**; and stopping Gibbs cold when Gibbs tried to claim that Biden was talking about the last eight years*** when Biden clearly said four. Pure entertainment, in other words: oh, I’m sure that there were plenty of softballs and whatnot. It’s Stephanopoulos, after all. But perhaps the Media is figuring out that smacking the Democrats around a bit promises to be good for the ratings… Continue reading Welcome to the new Media paradigm, Mister Gibbs.

#rsrh Breaking from Mother Jones: Paul Ryans wants USA to emulate… Delaware.

I do not think that this will have the impact that Mother Jones thinks that it will.

For those without video, it shows Paul Ryan calmly noting that a) it makes sense to have a pro-commerce and pro-business atmosphere in the United States that will make people from other countries want to park their money in our bank and b) you can raise revenue without raising taxes by growing the economy. While I understand that Mother Jones is almost violently opposed to pro-business and anti-taxation ideas, they are somewhat hampered by the minor detail that Paul Ryan’s next debate opponent is going to be Joe Biden, former Senator from Delaware. Watching Biden trying to explain why it’s all right for Delaware to deliberately and unashamedly pursue business-friendly policies, but not all right for the USA to ramp up to do the same on the international scale, would be hysterical – but not as much as the Left’s reaction. They still haven’t recovered from the beatdown that Romney gave Obama, you see.

Via AoSHQ and Riehl World View.

#rsrh QotD, The Kinetic Bombardment From Orbit May Now Commence edition.

A Mitt Romney staffer, explaining why you’re about to see campaign ads everywhere:

“Time is short,” said one campaign aide. “We have $100 million we’ve just raised. If you look at our burn rate to date and our cash on hand, there’s not much more we can spend on infrastructure. So we’ve got to start spending our general election funds in a big way, because you know what the value of that money is on the day after the election? Zero.”

Entertainingly: former NH governor John Sununu used the phrase ‘carpet bomb’ to describe the planned ad campaign. When challenged on this language, Romney-Ryan officials changed it… to ‘daisy cutter.’ Which is accurate, by the way: carpet bombing is far less precise as a method for flattening something. Plus, it’s just as likely to give progressives the vapors! Win-win, really.

Moe Lane

Why the Left freaked out about Paul Ryan telling the truth about the Janesville closing.

Such an innocent looking passage, to spark such panic from the Left.

From Paul Ryan’s convention speech yesterday:

President Barack Obama came to office during an economic crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two. Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account. My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory.

A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.” That’s what he said in 2008.

Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.

This is, by the way, a perfectly accurate statement. There was a GM plant in Janesville. Barack Obama did make a speech there in 2008. He did, in that speech, make those comments*. And the plant did not “last another year” – despite, I should note, the Obama administration’s bailout of GM that the administration is kind-of, sort-of touting as an ‘achievement.’ These are all true things; which has not kept the Left from screaming otherwise, to the point where the Obama campaign has officially (and in my opinion, unwisely) called Paul Ryan a liar. Continue reading Why the Left freaked out about Paul Ryan telling the truth about the Janesville closing.

-A tale of two campaigns: contrasting Romney-Ryan’s access with Obama-Biden’s.

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?

Continue reading -A tale of two campaigns: contrasting Romney-Ryan’s access with Obama-Biden’s.

Karen Harrington (R CAND, FL-23) invites Paul Ryan to campaign in her district.

I happened to be on a conference call with FL-23 candidate Karen Harrington, who of course is the person facing DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the general election. So it’s going to be a tough race; after all, if there’s any seat that the Democrats would be personally embarrassed to lose, it’d be this one. But when I asked directly whether Karen Harrington would welcome Paul Ryan campaigning for her in the district, she replied:

Absolutely… it would be a honor to have someone of Paul Ryan’s stature. Absolutely: not just because he’s the Vice President [nominee]; if he didn’t accept that role, and it was just Congressman Paul Ryan I would welcome him.

I bring this up because a number of people started this week by suggesting that adding Paul Ryan to the ticket would hurt the GOP downticket, particularly in states like Florida. While that argument seems to have largely died off – mostly of embarrassment, apparently – I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t point out that Republican candidates and politicians don’t seem to be particularly nervous about the Ryan pick. In fact, the default emotion that I’ve been detecting seems to be relief… Continue reading Karen Harrington (R CAND, FL-23) invites Paul Ryan to campaign in her district.