By Daniel Malloy, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution –
OXFORD, Ohio — Multiple glowing introductions preceded Paul Ryan before he jogged onto a platform amid thousands of cheering fans at his alma mater, but he had one particular concern.
“Did my professors say nice things about me?” asked Ryan, Miami of Ohio Class of 1992, revealing the geek within Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s new running mate.
(PHOTO: Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan talks with supporters during a campaign rally at Walsh University on Thursday, August 16, 2012, in North Canton, Ohio.)
A few minutes later at the Wednesday event came the U.S. House Budget Committee chairman’s brash side: “The president, I’m told, is talking about Medicare today. We want this debate. We need this debate. And we will win this debate.”
Romney and Ryan jaunted separately through Ohio in their first week as the presumptive GOP ticket. It is a state crucial to their hopes of defeating President Barack Obama, as no Republican ever has captured the White House without it.
But Ohio — like its swing-state cousin Florida — is packed with seniors who might be concerned by Ryan’s proposal to convert Medicare into a voucher system for future beneficiaries.
“I think there’s a net positive (for Romney), but there are some downsides,” said John Green, a political science professor at the University of Akron.
“Ryan inevitably raises the issue of entitlement programs, and that’s an issue for senior citizens in Ohio,” Green said. “Who knows exactly how that will play out, but historically those are not good things to raise in general elections in Ohio — whether you’re a Democrat or Republican.”
Ryan’s vision of cutting government and his deft way of articulating it have attracted renown among tea partyers, yet many in the large crowds that met Romney and Ryan in southern Ohio were not familiar with the seven-term Wisconsin congressman.
“I don’t really understand it,” Molly Plymale, 72, of Gallipolis said of Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” budget, versions of which have passed the House the past two years but failed in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
“I do know we’ve got to do something,” she said. “We’re probably going to go broke.”
Those who had followed Ryan’s career were pleased with Romney’s choice.
“We know he’s energized this campaign like crazy in the last few days,” said Julie Lonsberry, 67, of Oxford. “Mitt Romney needed this, someone with gusto.”
The pick also ignited Obama’s faithful. Several gathered at an Obama campaign office in Chillicothe hours before Romney spoke outside the county courthouse, painting protest signs and airing their distaste for Ryan.
“The direction that Romney and Ryan will take the country, it seems like we’re at a crossroads where we can continue being an America where we care about each other or we can go (with) this Ayn Rand stuff where the people who have the muscle can abuse the people who don’t,” said Tom Harker, 67, referring to the philosopher and author of “Atlas Shrugged,” whom Ryan has praised in the past but more recently rejected as the promoter of “an atheist philosophy.”
Preliminary polling does not show that Ryan has significantly shaken up the race. A poll of swing states released Thursday by the nonpartisan Purple Strategies firm showed a “small bump” for Romney and the race in a dead heat. The pollsters note, though, that it is the first sign of Romney momentum in recent months. Gallup found a weaker immediate impact on the ticket’s poll numbers than any Republican vice presidential selection since 1996. (For perspective, Obama experienced a 2-point drop in his Gallup numbers after naming Joe Biden as his running mate.)
Romney and Ryan presented a contrast of styles on the stump.
In Chillicothe, Romney, using a teleprompter, laid out an economic plan that relied on repealing the 2010 health care law, relaxing environmental restrictions on coal and natural gas extraction, and cutting spending. He was at his most animated discussing what he labeled an “angry and desperate” campaign by the president.
“He demonizes some. He panders to others,” Romney said. “His campaign strategy is to smash America apart and then cobble together 51 percent of the pieces. If an American president wins that way, we all lose.”
The next day in Oxford, Ryan relied on written notes and stumbled a couple of times but generally seemed at ease. He prowled the stage, using call and response with the crowd and bantering about football. At one point, after a spectator yelled “I love you,” Ryan replied, “I love you, too, Mom.” Then he chuckled and added: “It wasn’t my mom, actually.”
His crowd Wednesday included many younger people, even though most Miami students were not back on campus yet for the fall semester. On Thursday, Ryan stopped at Walsh University in North Canton.
Cameron Egbert, 20, a Miami student, said younger voters who got behind libertarian U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas in the Republican primary were drifting toward Romney — and Ryan’s energy can help seal them.
“I do think he will do a good job shedding the stuffy image” of Republicans, said Egbert, who brought along two friends typically apathetic about politics.
Older Republicans in the crowd shared that hope.
“For the sake of the youth who became Obama zombies in the last election, we need the youth to get invested,” said Mark Fabry, 51, of West Chester. “Paul Ryan has a chance to get in touch with that.”
Even though Ryan spent his college years in Ohio, many Buckeye State Republicans had hoped Romney would select U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, who won election in 2010 by a landslide.
Dennis Eckhart, a Democratic consultant and former congressman from Cleveland, said there was a “sigh of relief” in his party when Romney announced his pick.
“There were many Democrats in the state that were calculating Portman was worth 1 or 2 (percentage) points,” Eckhart said, a spread that could make the difference in this tightly contested election year.
Columbus Republican consultant Terry Casey said Portman might have made an impact near his home in southwest Ohio, but Ryan has broader appeal.
“The potential — and it’s the potential with a question mark — is Ryan shifts the debate maybe to more substance and policy,” Casey said. “It could. But the question is will it shift to a real policy discussion or will he just be attacked.”
You go on and on about ryan only passing 2 bills. With a democratically controlled senate how do you expect a decent bill to get passed. You blame it on ryan but it’s the democrats fault only 2 was passed.
* Mitt Romney Get’s the Garage Elevator ~ Our Seniors and Disabled “Get the Shaft!” *
Grandma Can’t Get her New ‘Wheelchair Upgrade’ but Mitt Gets a kick a*s Multi-Level Garage Installed? The Choice for 2012 Election: Obama Cares vs. Romney “Who-Cares, Really?”
Mitt Romney’s newly nominated ‘step-and-fetch’ sidekick Rep. Paul Ryan evidently solely passed a grand total of TWO bills into law during more than a DECADE of ‘slash-and-burn ‘service’ to his beleaguered state-employees as well as his elderly, poor and disabled Iowa constituents.
Rep. Paul Ryan ‘passing’ TWO bills into law – in more than a DECADE! (10 yrs? – Wow!)
And now the new vice presidential nominee wants just “FOUR MORE YEARS” to endeavor in his latest effort thus far (just like the his state employee benefits back in Iowa) in their campaign: “Rom on Rye with no more meat and cheese; but plenty of mustard” GOP Nominees Health Care Platform evidently stands for: ‘Razing’ and Ruination of Senior, Disabled Care and Choices for Caucasian Black and Latino Female Reproductive Rights’
Ryan only passed a grand total of two bills into law in more than a decade. Thus far the “Rom and Rye GOP Nominees Health Care Platform” evidently stands for: Raze and Ruination of Senior, Disabled Care and Choice for Female Reproductive Rights. Nothing would please these two more than the prompt-as-possible demonization and de-evolution of Planned into “Unplanned” Parenthood.
The Mitt and Paul philosophy with regards to senior, disabled, women’s health care access: “If You Tear it Down – Instead of Building and/or Rebuilding it – They Will No Longer Come” Rep. Paul Ryan’s more recent declaration: “Our rights come from nature and from God, not the buttinski government.”
Anyone having lived through the 60’s era the above line remembers statements such as that one bring readily churned out by the Klan (and others) in the name and under the blatantly false guise of ‘God and Country – Not the government’ granting people their civil rights as well.
But this ticket’s principal undoing will be the fact that they both freely admit that their primary goal will be promoting that ‘times are tough so give all the breaks to (and for) the rich folks’ as well as simultaneously turning Medi-Care into ‘Medi- Who-Cares’
* Why the Medicare health care coverage cuts now? When they are needed most? *
Solely so Mitt and his fellow cronies and backers continue declaring a maybe 14% or even less on their yearly tax ‘burden’ on their returns? As a result, the country’s grannies and grandpas and disabled people on Medicare get their health care cut and/or either cannot see their doctor anymore because they cannot pay the enormous increases anymore? And who’s next to demonized? Perhaps VA compensable service- connected conditions as well as those veterans needing home care and inpatient hospitalizations. Will Romney/Ryan eventually demonize these guys and gals as well down the road?
Mitt and his ‘Koch Bros Wannabees” get to keep 86% of their enormous ‘Individual Wealth Asset Hogs of the Venture Capitalists’ company ‘backers’ who were the people who originally got us all into this mess in the first place needing ‘bail-outs’ while the nations’ grannies and grandpas on Medicare (who had absolutely nothing at all to do with their mismanagements) – they are the ones who get the CUTS! And for god’s sake: They are the ones who get their health care slashed and cannot pay the enormous increases anymore?
There’s one thing even more atrociously despicable than elected pols who knowingly, deliberately and unendingly demonize the poverty stricken, elderly/disabled and disseminate demoralizing mistruths and that is: One that does so solely at the behest as well as in the best interests of their Koch and Co. backers; in order to continue increasing the nominee’s campaign’s (unquestionably nearly bottomless) campaign war chests.
Tough to stand by and remain silent when you’re listening to this pampered and pompous pretty-boy prattle on and (during these ‘no-questions-please’ campaign stops) whose idea of a “Return to American Values” is making the wealthy wealthier and simultaneously dismantling Medicare; literally ‘crippling’ out seniors ability to maintain their vital health care coverage with security and level of dignity.
What’s at Stake?
* Health Care for ALL vs. Health Coverage to ‘Forever Forestalled’ *
Do we really want to choose the GOP who continue to demonize our senior’s Medicare lifelines and demoralizes it’s worthy beneficiaries – those who worked an entire lifetime in order to be eligible for it – recipients who are usually decent, independent; mostly humble folks who are currently living on a meager and fixed income, who simply need a little or a even bit more aid when grandpa or granny’s ‘Misery’ is acting up?
To top it all off; replacing ‘ensured’ insurance with “Scratch Ticket Vouchers” which take away our seniors and disabled people’s vital (can’t-live-without) health care coverage while consequently forcing grandma and grandpa in a homeless shelter because they and their grown children are unable to afford subsequent higher deductibles and new co-payments – sacrificial vivisection of seniors former assured Medicare coverage.
In addition to that potential dilemma; who exactly do you think is going to be forced to lend a hand and consequently foot the bills for the future whopping out-of-pocket expenses senior and disabled ever-increasing medical bills – their families, that’s who! And when their savings runs out; do we stand by silently and go back to the days of the aged being forced to stock up on cat food cans or being compelled to live in homeless shelters when they can no longer afford their homes or stay with their children any longer.
For example: Having to suddenly foot-the-entire-bill for much higher deductibles as well as for the extra costs and higher copayments for their prescriptions; which will likely result in non-use of essential meds and medical services for these seniors and disabled peoples care: Will their children and/or their other already-struggling families be forced to pay the difference?
And who’s next to having their coverage on the Chopping Block? Our war weary US service veterans, perhaps?
These guys also want to “End Food Stamps as We Need it” for the folks who are either senior, disabled and/or those who’s unemployment eligibility has dried up. And who’s next to demonized? What about VA compensable service-connected conditions. Will Romney and Ryan eventually also demonize and then chuck these guys and gals under the bus too? Maybe in addition to the multi-level Garage Elevator Mitt might need a three story Gazebo in the backyard, perhaps?
First ‘welfare-queens’ were to blame – and now the Seniors and Disabled are our latest ‘lot in life’ and then down the road: Perhaps they will get sick of illusionary claims of VA benefits’ hogging squanderers w/service-connected conditions as well as those veterans needing out-patient in- home care as well as prolonged inpatient hospitalizations?