the most important election of your lifetime: 2012 american general election thread

dear god, plz let the vp nom be someone lulz.
thx,

I remember how closely Obama's announcement was covered--CNN had cameras outside Biden's home as he was whisked away late at night. I'm guessing that Rob Portman's house is not even being monitored by a neighborhood kid with a cell phone.

all the twitter speculation I'm seeing points to Ryan.

nbc news is reporting it

(didn't the obama campaign deliberately punk a news outlet they didn't like with the wrong VP pick last time around? i wonder)

well, nbc news is reporting that "sources say"

intrade has ryan at 89.9%

If it is Ryan, I expect they'll cut away from the announcement to an Obama attack ad.

among a lot of left-wingers i knew at the time, there was a kind of unknowingness + fear surrounding palin. who was this woman? why did right-wing america respond so fervently to her? i got chain-emails about how she banned books and used her baby like a secret fascist prop. anyway, i don't think ryan is going to inspire the same reaction.

when they first started talking about him as a possible vp candidate i thought for two weeks that they were talking about rand paul. i'm still not sure who this guy is besides from wisconsin iirc?

Yeah, Ryan feels more like a younger Jack Kemp. Supposed to give the ticket heft, but instead gives it somebody who puts people to sleep.

zombie-eyed granny starver iirc

this guy is a deficit hawk

a real hawk for deficits

so, will ryan also run for his house seat?

if there is a deficit, he will fly over it and then strike

If it is Ryan, the latter paragraphs of that Ryan Lizza profile are going to get circulated quick.

why would you release this information on a friday night/saturday morning anyway

No, it won't be tabloidish like with Palin (xpost), but they will go after Ryan's budget furiously--I think they've been hoping for him, but be careful, etc.

Gotta think Ryan is a poor choice. His budget plans didn't stand up to any scrutiny.

At an Atlas Society meeting celebrating Ayn Rand's life in 2005, Ryan said that "The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand", and "I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are. It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff."

Yeah he's been running away from that for a while now. Amusingly.

it's comparable to the palin pick in that it's wasted trying to 'win the base' that by any means should be his at this point. you can sorta see future gop presidential noms going down this exact same path.

He's going to win over "the people" with "his ideas." That's how politics works in the abstract, but I'm not sure guys like Ryan understand how it works IRL. I mean, maybe Romney/Ryan would be this magical triumph of the twin robots, but probably not.

the right-wing base hungers for attack dogs but the republican party keeps giving them robo boy scouts

Where's that old Nixon/Agnew/Dole spirit when you really need it.

i think we expect a kind of bullshit-smiling-politician image from our presidents in last couple decades that maybe precludes srsly explicit vicious candidates from holding the office

Not that they don't have a few of those people just biding their time right now, if only Mitt had the courage to go spectacularly and suicidally bold.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/files/2011/12/newt-gingrich.jpg http://www.nypost.com/rw/nypost/2011/04/20/pagesix/photos_stories/donald_trump--300x300.jpg http://ezkool.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/michelebachmannteaparty-300x300.jpg

what's weird is that i keep seeing ppl (chait, sullivan, weigel, etc) referring to paul ryan as a bold, exciting choice, not another "incredibly boring white guy." that can't be right tho -- ryan seems ibwg to me? i can't imagine any undecideds are going to change their minds bc he's on the ticket, or that any republicans are going to suddenly be motivated to go vote. i mean, look at the guy

http://paulryan.house.gov/uploadedphotos/highresolution/7231cf6a-99da-435f-a0dd-fb50946f65fa.jpg

destined to be an extra credit question on AP American Politics in 2065

Any chances of it being McConnell?

http://images.buddytv.com/articles/gabe-the-office.JPG

what's weird is that i keep seeing ppl (chait, sullivan, weigel, etc) referring to paul ryan as a bold, exciting choice

Nerds think it's bold and exciting to put a nerd on the ticket.

(If Romney does it, I predict towel-snapping and swirlies for Ryan.)

I think Ryan's supposed boldness is partly a function of his story--the guy in the wilderness who took on Obama early in 2009, when Republican morale was not great--and partly by default, which becomes clear when you listen to Pawlenty or Portman for 30 seconds.

when defining nerdiness, real nerds draw the line at Ayn Rand freaks. they have standards, you know.

he's an ideas man and true conservative genius that will single handedly change the dynamic of the race when he throttles his dim dem opponent in the debates. yknow, like newt.

but Newt's secret weapon was his living freak show schtick. that's what gives him star-power, not his "ideas" (such as they were).

Paul Ryan, OTOH, has the star-power of a rock.

I really am surprised that they've decided to do this before the Olympics are over. They're clearly trying to put last week behind them as quickly as possible, but why wouldn't they wait at least until Monday?

no no newt (until very recently maybe - the moon base seems to have maybe been a tipping point finally) was actually taken seriously as an 'intellectual' and even republicans i knew who hated newt relished the idea of him 'destroying' obama in the debates. ryan has this same overrated serious ideas man rep (nevermind his ideas being as batshit and as full of shit - in 2000 he was arguing how clinton's balancing the budget had put america in peril) minus the personal foibles and ego of newt but also w/ 10% of the charisma. they've nominated the al gore to newt's clinton. and this was the bold choice. i do know that when ryan gave the rebuttal to the sotu i didn't feel any dread at the prospect of facing this guy, he seemed very much the kind of weasel that can go far in the house but would be out of his depth at any level above that.

I just have to all things being equal congratulate Harry Reird, Romney is maybe an easy target but he brought him down w one shot, he owned him on his lunch break my lord

thats some mormon on Mormon crime, avert yr eyes children

he's an ideas man and true conservative genius that will single handedly change the dynamic of the race when he throttles his dim dem opponent in the debates. yknow, like newt.

gotta admit what surprises me is that ryan would risk his chance to be a lifer like newt by potentially flaming out palin-style

He might be entertaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHE5BIP2-D8

yeah i can see how GOP folks think he has a Mr. Smith Goes To Washington But Smart vibe

out of curiosity, are there any cases where a president was elected because people were jazzed up by their VP selection?

Ryan would be a horrible choice imho in every way except covering mitts ass against conservative pundits, and tbf that won't even work

this is a p good summery of the thinking that basically boils down to the vp nom can move the needle a lil bit in his home state maybe aka doesn't matter much xp http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/how-romneys-pick-of-a-running-mate-could-sway-the-outcome

and that piece notes ryan is actually one of the less popular options in terms of home state advantage

exactly

It just might work.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/ryan-1.jpg http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/smith.jpg