Belated Ryan Reactions
I really should have posted these when they immediately came to mind, and a lot of this ground has been covered elsewhere, but here goes anyway. In roughly chronological order:
1) Hello GOP base, goodbye everyone else.
2) This is such a repellent combination that it will probably damage Republican candidates downticket.
3) It will put the giant magnifying glass of a presidential campaign squarely on the Ryan budget, which will further damage any downticket Republicans who supported it.
4) The scrutiny of his budget will also have a huge impact on Ryan himself, who will find his reputation changing from “bright young up-and-coming Republican star with Serious Ideas about the economy and stuff” to “the guy who wants to kill Medicare”. He will have a very similar arc to Sarah Palin’s from superstar to albatross, though not for the same reasons.
5) The downticket effects make it very hard for me to believe that this is some kind of diabolical strategy to throw the election so that Obama and the Democrats will take the fall for the effects of Republican obstruction. I think Mitt really is this delusional and/or afraid of his own base.
August 15th, 2012 at 11:30am Posted by Eli
Entry Filed under: Elections,Politics,Republicans,Romney