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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Campaign 4 Imaginability

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With the Ryan choice Romney said that he will deal with the problems.

The next test is:  Can you imagine this guy as a President?

With his acceptance speech I think that he earns the answer yes.

He has my vote in play, but he certainly hasn't gotten it yet.
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5 comments:

  1. I wish I could interpret Mitt's actions and words the same way you do. I wish I could believe that Ryan's choice for VP signaled anything other than Romney's need to solidify and galvanize the Party's base, because let's face it, the base has been luke warm at best toward having him as their candidate. It seems to have worked with you, at least to a great extent. I wish I believed that Mitt could cut taxes, raise military spending, "replace $700 billion in Medicare spending" and still cut the deficit spending.

    I wish I believed that just because Romney is talking about making the tough choices he actually WILL make the tough choices. I doubt seriously that the tough choices will be made by a 1st term President, unless that President does not want a second term.

    The tough choices will not be popular, even though the idea of making the tough choices sounds GREAT. But when American voters think of tough choices they generally aren't thinking that any of those choices should affect them. But they will.

    I mostly wish that I could believe that Romney is going to create 1.2 million new jobs.

    But unless I see a detailed plan that tells us how exactly that works mechanically, it's all just words to get elected by. Because frankly it just doesn't add up based on what he has revealed. Don't just tell me we're going to the promised land. Show me the road map with the route we are going to take highlighted.

    I hope I am wrong, because there is every reason to believe that this is his election to lose unless the economy really takes off between now and then. I don't see that happening.

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    1. I have no idea what you are talking about and where you get the things that you attribute to me.

      What I have said is:

      1. Ryan has announced that he wants to reform medicare. (That he would accept the heat for that position means he is serious.)

      2. Romney chose him and that means he is serious and not just hoping to win on the bad economy.

      3. Romney's presentation of himself at the convention was such that I can imagine him being President.

      You can start a new post for your topics. There is really no need for you to make up this strawman stuff that you read into what I say - that his appeal to galvanize his base "seems to have worked for you" - . Not everyone who disagrees with you is on the opposite extreme from your side. The fact that I will consider changing from Obama in 2008 to Romney in 2012 does not put me into Romney's base.


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    2. I meant 12 million jobs, not 1.2 million jobs.

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    3. HIGHLIGHTED ROAD MAP – whether one agrees or disagrees with Romney –Ryan on matters of the Economy or Medicare reform I think there is ample documentation of what they want to do and how they propose to do it. On the link to Romney’s web site below there is plenty of partisan (noise) rhetoric. If you can get past that there is also a wealth of specifics. The same is true of the Paul Ryan budget.

      Romney’s plan – see page 151 and 152 on this link
      http://www.mittromney.com/sites/default/files/shared/BelieveInAmerica-PlanForJobsAndEconomicGrowth-Full.pdf
      The Ryan budget – see this link
      http://paulryan.house.gov/uploadedfiles/pathtoprosperity2013.pdf

      In the quest for more (and perhaps voluminous) details I give you the following quote often attributed to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel “If your plan gets you into battle it is good enough”.

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  2. Wayne let me try to clarify:

    1. You stated in your original post that "he has my vote in play".
    2. You preceded that announcement with your observations, and interpretations based on those observations, that you have also listed in your response to me.

    1. (observation)Ryan has announced that he wants to reform medicare. (That he would accept the heat for that position means he is serious.)

    2. (Your interpretation)Romney chose him and that means he is serious and not just hoping to win on the bad economy.

    3. ( I would concur on this)Romney's presentation of himself at the convention was such that I can imagine him being President

    3. I concluded that your announcement that "he has my vote in play" was based on the preceding observations and related interpretations of what you have observed.
    4. Hence my conclusion that "It seems to have worked with you, at least to a great extent". (I did not mean that as a criticism but merely was noting the cause and effect relationship. They made certain moves to get people's votes and you are, as a result of those moves, more seriously considering voting for him.)

    Now, I observed the exact same things you observed, but did not interpret them the same way ( although I must admit that he does look like the guy I would pick to play the President in my movie, if I had a movie...him or Morgan Freeman, so he does look Presidential to me.) MY interpretation is detailed in my comment, as you know, and is quite different from yours.

    Since the Vice President does not make policy, my interpretation is that the pick of a certain Vice Presidential candidate does not automatically mean that the pick reflects what the Presidential candidate is planning to do. And given Romney's general weakness with the Republican base, picking Ryan, a real darling of the base, could just as likely be correctly interpreted as a popular nod to the base for the purposes I mentioned above. And why would the base be excited about Ryan being picked as the running mate? Because as you say:

    1. Ryan has announced that he wants to reform medicare. (That he would accept the heat for that position means he is serious.)

    2. Romney chose him and that means he is serious and not just hoping to win on the bad economy.

    If your interpretation of the Ryan pick is correct then I say great. I honestly do. But I don't see any evidence that any Vice President has had great sway over the President, with the one exception being Cheney. Admittedly I am no Presidential historian, but I have seen a few Presidents and prior to Bush Jr. I can't recall one Vice President in my lifetime that seemed to have a very important position in the administration. They serve the President in whatever fashion the President chooses, which sometimes is to just stay out of the way and don't say anything that the President will have to apologize for later. Their main purpose seems to be, for the most part, to help the Presidential candidate get elected.

    If my interpretation is correct then the strategy worked, as noted by the love fest at the RNC. And I theorized that it was partly responsible for your "vote for him being in play". Not that that is a bad thing. Whether it is a strategy, as I say, or a sign that they will get serious, the base ate it up, and I imagine that many who worry a great deal about the debt, are excited about what it could mean. And you could very well be right. As I noted in my earlier comment, I hope you are.

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