The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Here's the Obama strategy. It's 1995 all over again. Obama is Clinton; and Gingrich is...Paul Ryan. From McClatchy:
Obama professes to like Ryan, the 41-year-old chairman of the House Budget Committee. But in increasingly personal and pointed terms, Obama is attacking Ryan as the face of a Republican Party that he says would use the government's debt crisis to turn America in a radical new direction.
He's doing it for two key reasons. Obama wants to shift the public focus away from own contribution to the nation's skyrocketing debt — which hurt Democrats in the 2010 congressional elections — and onto the Republican Party's proposed solutions. And he wants to frame the election as a choice between two very different visions of America: The Republican one he calls a dark place for the poor and middle class, and the other his own view of a friendly, more utopian place.
Obama, his top advisers and fellow Democrats believe that Ryan handed them a gift when he proposed a budget plan that would cut taxes by $2 trillion over 10 years and also cut federal spending by $6.2 trillion, cuts which include possibly wrenching changes in the popular Medicare program.
Is this going to work? Ryan strikes me as a lot more likable than Gingrich. Or Obama, for that matter. And going head-to-head against a fairly modest and nonassuming congressman like Ryan -- he's not Speaker; he's not the Majority Leader; he's not even the Whip -- only elevates Ryan. And thereby diminishes the president.
I guess it all comes down to this: left and right partisans aside, there's about 12% of the country in the middle. And who are they going to believe? Who are they going to trust?
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Dec '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
I think the GOP can capture that 12% or at least a majority of it. The power of truth in the Ryan Plan's assessment of the U.S.'s economic future is, in my mind, cancelled out by Obama's fluff. Both contain speculation, and if that 12% were wonkish enough to verify the math, they would already have ended up on one side or the other.
Ryan or the 2012 GOP candidate have to compare Obama's future, in which we all must sacrifice to the sacred cow of social welfare, to one in which a reduced reliance on the state is the very means by which we recapture the dreams of our forefathers.
Confiscatory taxation = loss of property rights = ?. There is no point in which it is ever enough.
Edited on Apr 25, 2011 at 12:55pmMay '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
The problem with Obama's strategy, as you say, is Ryan is not Gingrich and Obama is not Clinton. Ryan does not give the impression that he has grand ambitions like Gingrich did. Everyone knew Gingrich was scheming Presidential plans. Ryan comes across as the likable accountant next door that tells you you haven't put enough away for retirement. You may not like what he says but on some level you know he has a point and he is telling you this for your own good. Obama, on the other hand, is just not flexible enough (politically or rhetorically) to come across as the reasonable one. His natural inclination is to demonize and fight, not compromise and take the middle.
The longer this goes on the sillier Ryan's opponents sound. I know we all fear the "Republicans want to kill granny" schtick but the facts are on our side. And the issues we're tackling are imminent. When Jon Stewart is calling Obama's cost-cutting speeches Orwellian, you know he has a problem.
Edited on Apr 25, 2011 at 12:55pmAug '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Americans have a big wakeup coming, and the Fool's Paradise will end. Ryan will be proved a prophet; the 'progressives' will be seen as delusional.
The world has been our enabler up until now, buying Treasuries and keeping up appearances that we're somehow good for all our debt. Like the liquor stores that sell booze to the alcoholic family, China and other creditor countries wanted trade with us and were hoping we'd straighten out our fiasco. But that's ending. It started with the S&P downgrade of our economy. Moody's and Fitch will follow. The truth will be undeniable.
When it's finally seen, the shock will be tremendous. We'll be just another Greece, Portugal, or Spain; needing a bailout. Who can bail us out? Nobody has enough money.
Our economy and stock market will tank. The Democrats won't escape retribution.
May '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
I agree with Pat. Trying to demonize Paul Ryan will only make Obama look worse--less and less the post-partisan healer and more and more the incompetent jerk.
Ryan looks and talks like he's just stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting of America at its best.
Dec '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Just call Ryan up and remind him not to mess around on his wife. Isn't that what brought Newt down?
I feel strongly that what we see with Ryan is what we get. I just hope he looks good through a microscope, because that's what's going to be used.
Sep '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Obama is Gingrich, and I don't think Ryan has ever hid his transcripts. By the way, isn't it delicious beyond measure that Obama's nemesis is a guy named Ryan? Both as a reminder of a former opponent he had tossed from a race so that all Obama had to do is show up, and as the character from a Tom Clancy novel.
Pass the popcorn. Narcissus has left the building.
May '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
HE's accusing US of using a crisis to turn the country in a radical new direction? Get out your chutzpah meters, we may have a new record.
Jan '11
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Ryan already embarrassed Obama once during the health care debates when Obama was made to look like the fool he is. Now on the budget he somehow hopes that he can make a friend of Ryan and then throw him under the bus? The Ryan Plan is the USA's best option and only by making the hard decisions now will it prevent the USA's electorate making even more difficult decisions later.
May '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Ryan is so not Newt. He does not have the arrogance.
Aug '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Jerry Broaddus:
I feel strongly that what we see with Ryan is what we get. I just hope he looks good through a microscope, because that's what's going to be used. · Apr 25 at 1:16pm
You got that right.
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
katievs: I agree with Pat. Trying to demonize Paul Ryan will only make Obama look worse--less and less the post-partisan healer and more and more the incompetent jerk.
Ryan looks and talks like he's just stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting of America at its best. · Apr 25 at 1:11pm
Katievs, you said it better than I could. So far, Ryan has won every round because he is telling the obvious truth and the other fella is desperate, shifting from Budget A to Budget B and to Budget Who Knows What as the electorate gets more and more nervous about the dollar's collapse. Paul Ryan is, by way of comparison, Mr. Smith Comes to Washington. It really would take Jimmy Stewart to play the role.
Oct '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Paul A. Rahe
Katievs, you said it better than I could. So far, Ryan has won every round because he is telling the obvious truth and the other fella is desperate, shifting from Budget A to Budget B and to Budget Who Knows What as the electorate gets more and more nervous about the dollar's collapse. Paul Ryan is, by way of comparison, Mr. Smith Comes to Washington. It really would take Jimmy Stewart to play the role. · Apr 25 at 3:46pm
Here's the other thing too. Ryan does not have to win by KO; he just has to maintain through all the rounds and make it to a judges' decision. President Obama picked the fight and called him out while he was still an underdog. Obama has already started fundraising for his re-election campaign while Ryan is honing his argument and claims through town-halls in his district.
I think the trouble would be a Ryan candidacy (sigh...) for then the clear, focused fiscal argument gets muddled.
Edited on Apr 25, 2011 at 4:20pmSep '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
PJ
HE's accusing US of using a crisis to turn the country in a radical new direction? Get out your chutzpah meters, we may have a new record. · Apr 25 at 1:36pm
That's the strategy - accuse your opponent of what you yourself are doing.
Sep '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Obama has set the bar too high for himself. He is trying to defeat or refute Paul Ryan. He can't do it. On the other hand, Ryan merely has to appear reasonable and run out the clock.
Oct '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
I'd like a televised Ryan Obama debate on the debt, budget, and entitlement reform.
Apr '11
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Do you think Vegas would give odds on that fight? Unfortunately, remember the Korean Olympics, the winner doesn't always win. The problem for the Republicans is the announcer is the main stream media, and there are enough voters not paying attention who will give the round to whoever their favorite is!
Apr '11
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
The bottom line is, I'm afraid that America won't wake up until there is a complete catastrophe. Just look at our history if you want proof. The best thing we've got going for us is, we bounce back very well; unfortunately we will suffer greatly for responding so slowly. I fully expect that we will learn the hard way, as usual.
Mar '11
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Obama is schlepping around too much baggage to retain credibility with independents. He’s no longer the blank screen on which millions can project their hopes and dreams. He’s the man with the broken promises.
Contrast that with Paul Ryan, who is telling us things people know to be true. One plus zero equals one. A (pre-union) teacher taught me that. She didn’t claim she could take a dollar and run it through that magical mystical efficiency machine called “government” and turn it into a buck fifty.
You don’t have to be an economist to know that drunken sailors are more responsible than the people calling the economic shots now. Drunken sailors only spend their own money – and when they’re out of it, they stop.
Oct '10
Re: The Gingrich-ification of Paul Ryan
Obama's attack is more evidence that Paul Ryan is his greatest threat. Now that we have this confirmation from the highest office in the land, can we all get on board with a Draft-Ryan program?