Does It Matter

[Valin]

TRR:

For the last couple of day the one of the major topics has been Who Will Romney Pick as his Vice President pick.

So the question is, does this really matter?

Or is it (as I suspect) just a reason for the chattering class to show off just how "Inside" the campaign they are.

 

Speaking only for myself, the instrument has yet been built that can measure my apathy over who he picks...assuming it is not a card carrying member of the CPUSA...or Downside Debbie both of which are highly unlikely.

 

So the question is...does it matter one wit who he picks? Will it really affect the election?

[pollyannaish]

I think a bad choice can hurt him.

 

But a good choice won't help him.

 

Does that make me cynical?

[Valin]

I think a bad choice can hurt him.

 

But a good choice won't help him.

 

Does that make me cynical?

 

(going off topic)

Who would be a Bad Choice?

 

No it doesn't make you cynical. It makes you someone who actually thinks.

[pollyannaish]

I think a bad choice can hurt him.

 

But a good choice won't help him.

 

Does that make me cynical?

 

(going off topic)

Who would be a Bad Choice?

 

No it doesn't make you cynical. It makes you someone who actually thinks.

 

Well. Hmmm.

 

Lindsey Graham. Sarah Palin. Jeb Bush. Rick Santorum. Michelle Bachman.

 

Actually, I'm not going to just list names. Here are my criteria for bad:

 

1. Someone with a reputation for being wimpy: Think Lindsey Graham.

2. Someone with a reputation for being inexperienced: Think Sara Palin.

3. Someone with family connections: Think Jeb Bush.

4. Someone who was extra nasty during the primary season: Think Rick Santorum.

5. Someone who is a bit of a flame thrower: Think Michelle Bachman, maybe even Alan West.

6. Someone who is black just because of his/her skin color.

7. Someone who is a woman, just because she is a woman.

 

If I was to put down what criteria I would use in relationship to Mitt it would be:

 

1. Someone who has significant credentials in a specific area such as foreign policy or the budget and will bring expertise to the ticket.

2. Someone who has a backbone.

3. Someone who is articulate and good natured. Bonus points for sense of humor. (Desperately needed on this ticket.)

4. Someone who will help in swing states is also a bonus.

5. Serious and experienced enough to step into the presidency without blinking.

 

Now, here is the irony. The Democrats can put tokens or clowns on their ticket and it pretty much doesn't mean a thing. I hate that, but it is what it is.

[Valin]

Google News: romney vice president list

35,800 results

 

When was the last time a Vice presidential pick really affected an election?

[logicnreason]

Google News: romney vice president list

35,800 results

 

When was the last time a Vice presidential pick really affected an election?

 

Damn sure wasn't "Carter/Mondale"!!!

 

This election's "hidden" agenda.....and one the stain's team has finally mentioned in public is: the next president will most likely appoint at least two - if not three - SC judges.

 

And if that doesn't give you the willies regarding the current regime's possible re-election - you've got to be asleep.

[Valin]

@logicnreason

 

Hidden agenda? USSC judges are always a major factor.

 

My point is, if you go pretty much anywhere on the right wing blogosphere you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an article...etc about who the VP should be....who really cares. The fact is the VP only has the power the President give him/her. I mean do you know anyone who says "I'm not voting for Romney because he picked...so and so for his VP?

[nickydog]

I know some people who didn't vote for McCain because of Sarah, and others who did vote for McCain because of Sarah.

[Valin]

I know some people who didn't vote for McCain because of Sarah, and others who did vote for McCain because of Sarah.

 

Do you think it substantially effected the election?

[nickydog]

I know some people who didn't vote for McCain because of Sarah, and others who did vote for McCain because of Sarah.

 

Do you think it substantially effected the election?

 

Well, when you put it that way.....

[Valin]

@nickydog

 

My point is all this handringing tealeaf reading!...For this? Let them write about something that matters....to those of us in flyover land.

/rant.

[logicnreason]

@logicnreason

 

Hidden agenda? USSC judges are always a major factor.

 

My point is, if you go pretty much anywhere on the right wing blogosphere you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an article...etc about who the VP should be....who really cares. The fact is the VP only has the power the President give him/her. I mean do you know anyone who says "I'm not voting for Romney because he picked...so and so for his VP?

 

Care to change your comment now that Paul Ryan is going to be the next VICEPresident of the US??

[Valin]

@logicnreason

 

Hidden agenda? USSC judges are always a major factor.

 

My point is, if you go pretty much anywhere on the right wing blogosphere you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an article...etc about who the VP should be....who really cares. The fact is the VP only has the power the President give him/her. I mean do you know anyone who says "I'm not voting for Romney because he picked...so and so for his VP?

 

Care to change your comment now that Paul Ryan is going to be the next VICEPresident of the US??

 

No. Why would I?

[Draggingtree]

TRR:

For the last couple of day the one of the major topics has been Who Will Romney Pick as his Vice President pick.

So the question is, does this really matter?

Or is it (as I suspect) just a reason for the chattering class to show off just how "Inside" the campaign they are.

 

Speaking only for myself, the instrument has yet been built that can measure my apathy over who he picks...assuming it is not a card carrying member of the CPUSA...or Downside Debbie both of which are highly unlikely.

 

So the question is...does it matter one wit who he picks? Will it really affect the election?

Paul Ryan: Mitt Romney's Line in the Sand

 

 

By David Limbaugh · August 14, 2012

 

Mitt Romney has outdone himself in choosing Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate. The conservative base is ecstatic, and that will translate into voter intensity and high turnout.

 

Our country faces an unprecedented debt crisis, primarily driven by our entitlement programs. We have more than $100 trillion of unfunded liabilities -- a staggering, incomprehensible number -- and we are on a collision course with national bankruptcy.

 

Obama has offered no solutions; his Democratic majority in the Senate has failed to produce a budget in 1,200 days; and they have both obstructed the Republicans' proposed remedies. It's as if it's a game with these people and our crushing national debt is but a trifling matter.

 

Obama is not only obstructing budget reform; it's almost as if he is trying to make matters worse. He has added a new major entitlement, Obamacare, and has continued to amass annual budget deficits in excess of $1 trillion, and his latest 10-year budget revealed he would continue to do so. Instead of reducing spending, he has demanded yet more "stimulus" spending and is ushering in the largest tax increase in U.S. history, which is guaranteed to further read more http://patriotpost.us/opinion/14417

[Draggingtree]

Paul Ryan's record: huge role in debt debate but few legislative wins

 

Rep. Paul Ryan's grasp of federal spending has given him an outsized role in defining the GOP position on deficits and debt, but he has a lower profile in driving the bipartisan compromises needed to pass laws.

 

By David Grant, Staff writer / August 14, 2012

Washington

 

Paul Ryan is a creature of Congress. Elected to the House in 1998 at the age of 28, the Wisconsin Republican had even spent much of the prior six years on or around Capitol Hill working as a staffer and at a conservative think tank.

Over that span, the man Mitt Romney tapped as his vice presidential running mate came to define his party's position on debt and deficits, after a rapid rise to lead the Budget Committee by virtue of his grasp on federal spending.

In a toxic political environment, he has built personal friendships and worked on policy proposals with Democrats, but he has yet to put his shoulders behind any bipartisan political initiative to rein in the national debt. Although Democrats dub his budgets extremist, Representative Ryan's voting record ranks in the center of his caucus.

Among Republicans, Ryan is seen as a leader and tutor on budget issues, a convivial mentor with deep knowledge of federal spending. And it is without question that he has done more to shape how Republican lawmakers talk about the budget than any other member of Congress.

“Nobody understands the federal budget better than Paul, or has worked harder to develop and offer real solutions to the fiscal challenges facing America,” said Sen. Ron Johnson ® of Wisconsin in a statement.

Ryan’s budgets, passed by the House in both 2011 and 2012, came to define the read more

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2012/0814/Paul-Ryan-s-record-huge-role-in-debt-debate-but-few-legislative-wins

[pollyannaish]

@logicnreason

 

Hidden agenda? USSC judges are always a major factor.

 

My point is, if you go pretty much anywhere on the right wing blogosphere you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an article...etc about who the VP should be....who really cares. The fact is the VP only has the power the President give him/her. I mean do you know anyone who says "I'm not voting for Romney because he picked...so and so for his VP?

 

Care to change your comment now that Paul Ryan is going to be the next VICEPresident of the US??

 

No. Why would I?

 

I think that Ryan was a good choice on several levels. He energizes the base, he clarifies the issues, he energizes and softens up Romney.

 

But I doubt it changed anybody's vote.

[Valin]

@logicnreason

 

Hidden agenda? USSC judges are always a major factor.

 

My point is, if you go pretty much anywhere on the right wing blogosphere you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an article...etc about who the VP should be....who really cares. The fact is the VP only has the power the President give him/her. I mean do you know anyone who says "I'm not voting for Romney because he picked...so and so for his VP?

 

Care to change your comment now that Paul Ryan is going to be the next VICEPresident of the US??

 

No. Why would I?

 

I think that Ryan was a good choice on several levels. He energizes the base, he clarifies the issues, he energizes and softens up Romney.

 

But I doubt it changed anybody's vote.

 

 

That is my point...and my only point....well that and a rant about the laziness (herd mentality) of the punditry left and right.

[Valin]

@pollyannaish

 

Here I go again.

 

PS If you were to go to the major Republican/Conservative sites, you would thing since Friday the only thing of any importance that is happening in the world is Mitt Romney naming Paul Ryan his VP candidate. Herd mentality...ie I have to talk and talk and talk about this....never mind you can see the same thing on Townhall...NRO...Rightscoop...Power line....etc.

/rant.

[pollyannaish]

@pollyannaish

 

Here I go again.

 

PS If you were to go to the major Republican/Conservative sites, you would thing since Friday the only thing of any importance that is happening in the world is Mitt Romney naming Paul Ryan his VP candidate. Herd mentality...ie I have to talk and talk and talk about this....never mind you can see the same thing on Townhall...NRO...Rightscoop...Power line....etc.

/rant.

 

Honestly, I think that is in large part due to the fact that in the US, politics is a sport. It has its teams, and celebrities and freelancers, and commentators just like the rest. How much is written about a single play in a football game for years? How often does it really make any difference.

 

At this point in the election (and for some people all the time) politics is less about ideas than it is about winning. Sad, but I'm not sure much different than it has been for the past thirty years. I hope I'm wrong.

[Valin]

@pollyannaish

 

Here I go again.

 

PS If you were to go to the major Republican/Conservative sites, you would thing since Friday the only thing of any importance that is happening in the world is Mitt Romney naming Paul Ryan his VP candidate. Herd mentality...ie I have to talk and talk and talk about this....never mind you can see the same thing on Townhall...NRO...Rightscoop...Power line....etc.

/rant.

 

Honestly, I think that is in large part due to the fact that in the US, politics is a sport. It has its teams, and celebrities and freelancers, and commentators just like the rest. How much is written about a single play in a football game for years? How often does it really make any difference.

 

At this point in the election (and for some people all the time) politics is less about ideas than it is about winning. Sad, but I'm not sure much different than it has been for the past thirty years. I hope I'm wrong.

 

 

Agree, it is sad....and it drives me nuts. This idea in politics that winning is all that counts is one of the reasons we are in the situation we are in today....We're Broke.

[pollyannaish]

@pollyannaish

 

Here I go again.

 

PS If you were to go to the major Republican/Conservative sites, you would thing since Friday the only thing of any importance that is happening in the world is Mitt Romney naming Paul Ryan his VP candidate. Herd mentality...ie I have to talk and talk and talk about this....never mind you can see the same thing on Townhall...NRO...Rightscoop...Power line....etc.

/rant.

 

Honestly, I think that is in large part due to the fact that in the US, politics is a sport. It has its teams, and celebrities and freelancers, and commentators just like the rest. How much is written about a single play in a football game for years? How often does it really make any difference.

 

At this point in the election (and for some people all the time) politics is less about ideas than it is about winning. Sad, but I'm not sure much different than it has been for the past thirty years. I hope I'm wrong.

 

 

Agree, it is sad....and it drives me nuts. This idea in politics that winning is all that counts is one of the reasons we are in the situation we are in today....We're Broke.

 

Exactly. But don't you think that is the natural outcome of the diminishing of core values in society? If you're whole philosophy is based on "if it feels good do it" then of course winning is everything. So is giving away other people's money. So is taking money from other people you didn't earn. Everything breaks down on a single idea from the sixties.

[Valin]

 

Agree, it is sad....and it drives me nuts. This idea in politics that winning is all that counts is one of the reasons we are in the situation we are in today....We're Broke.

 

Exactly. But don't you think that is the natural outcome of the diminishing of core values in society? If you're whole philosophy is based on "if it feels good do it" then of course winning is everything. So is giving away other people's money. So is taking money from other people you didn't earn. Everything breaks down on a single idea from the sixties.

 

That may very well be part of it.

 

This May be changing however

A small example from here in MN

Tuesday's primary sets up race for control of the Legislature

JIM RAGSDALE and RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER

August 15, 2012

In state House race, a Tea Party activist ousts longest-serving GOP member.

 

Tea Party leader Cindy Pugh, who was inspired by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann's call to arms over health care reform, easily defeated state Rep. Steve Smith in Tuesday's primary election, a runup to the November battle for control of the Legislature.

 

Pugh, of Chanhassen, scored a resounding victory over Smith, who lost his party's endorsement after opposing constitutional amendments for so-called right-to-work laws and against same-sex marriage, both of which Pugh embraces.

 

"This is a victory for everyone who is engaged and concerned about the direction of the state, about spending, about the size of government,'' Pugh said. "It is a victory for the Tea Party. We embrace the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market solutions."

 

Smith, the longest-tenured Republican in the House, sees himself as part of a trend. "In various parts of the country the Republican Party, which is a good party, has been hijacked by extremists and I'm an example of that," he said.

(Snip)