Saturday, August 11, 2012

Romney Picks Paul Ryan - And His "Immoral Budget" - for VP

Both the Virginian Pilot and the Washington Post are reporting that Mitt Romney has selected Paul Ryan - architect of the GOP budget plan that even the child rapist protecting Catholic bishops describe as immoral for what it does to the neediest Americans - as his vice presidential running mate.  The official announcement is reportedly to be made in little more than an hour aboard the decommissioned battleship Wisconsin that comprises part of Norfolk's maritime museum on the Norfolk Waterfront.   While the irrational and ignorant GOP base may be rejoicing, anyone with a shred of compassion for the less fortunate ought to be appalled.  Ryan will serve to solidify Romney and the GOP as the antithesis to the Robin Hood legend: they will rob from the poor and middle class and give to the most wealthy elements of society.  Grandma might truly find herself subsisting on dry dog kibble and with greatly reduced health care options should Romney win the White House and the GOP take control of Congress.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post coverage (which also looks at the con job Romney hopes to work at the GOP convention to reverse the growing realization that Romney is a reverse Robin Hood):

NORFOLK — Mitt Romney has selected Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate in the presidential race and will make the long-awaited announcement here Saturday morning.  Romney’s campaign told supporters at about 7 a.m. via an iPhone app that the seven-term congressman would be the Republican vice presidential nominee.

Romney plans to announce his decision about 8:45 a.m., when he tours the USS Wisconsin, a decommissioned World War II-era Navy battleship named to honor the state.

If Romney announces Ryan as his running mate, he would offer voters the starkest possible choice on how to address issues of spending and taxing, embracing Ryan’s single-minded focus on reducing the nation’s debt without raising taxes by dramatically altering Americans’ relationship to their government.

It is a fight Democrats, too, have savored, believing the details of Ryan’s budget will convince voters that they offer a fairer path to reduced deficits through a combination of spending cuts and higher taxes on the wealthy. 

“To borrow a phrase, the convention has the potential to be an ‘Etch a Sketch moment,’ ” said Mark McKinnon, a longtime Republican image-maker who advised the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain. “Conventions often wipe the slate clean. A crucial bloc of undecided voters, though there aren’t many this year, will just start paying attention when the convention starts.”

Romney’s advisers are putting the finishing touches on plans to reintroduce the candidate to the nation. They have filmed new videos with Romney and his family at his lakefront vacation home in Wolfeboro, N.H., and are devising a prominent role onstage for Ann Romney and their extended family.

For Romney, a big moment couldn’t come soon enough. Weeks of pummeling by Democratic ads depicting Romney as an out-of-touch plutocrat and possible tax evader appear to have taken a toll.

Three national polls released over the past two days show Obama widening his lead over Romney to as much as nine points. The surveys of registered voters, all conducted between Aug. 2 and Aug. 8, also show Romney’s unfavorable ratings rising. Two of the polls show his support among independents slipping.

A Fox News poll found the largest deficit, with Romney trailing by nine points — 49 percent to 40 percent — the widest gap Fox has reported all year.

A senior Romney adviser played down the new polls at a news briefing Friday morning at Boston headquarters, saying that they must be midsummer flukes because there had been no “precipitating event” to move the numbers so much.

 Part of me feels that even Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell would have been a more compassionate individual for the VP slot - and that is something down right scary.

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