On almost every television talking heads program, in nearly every newspaper article and on every radio talk show, Democrat operatives have been using the same words from scripted talking points
to describe Republican Vice President nominee, Paul Ryan.
Extreme. Radical. Right wing idealogue.
The reason they are doing this is very simple. President Barack Obama cannot run on his record of 40-plus months of unemployment over 8%, our national debt increasing by half (50%) under the President's watch although he promised to cut it in half, and the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression. President Obama's only hope at being reelected is to make the Republican option so unsettling to voters that they will reluctantly vote for the President in the November election.
This is the reason why a Democrat super PACs developed an ad accusing Republican nominee Mitt Romney of causing a woman's cancer death. This is why the Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, made outrageous claims that Romney might be a felon and that the "word's out" that Romney didn't pay federal income taxes for 10 years. This is also why leaders in the Obama Campaign tried their best to smear Romney's work at Bain Capital.
Advantage Obama.
Democratic operatives realized that every day the Romney Campaign was forced to answer questions from the news media about the despicable "cancer" ad, every day that the news media kept the story alive about Romney's tax returns and every day the news media asked about Bain Capital was one more day that the Obama Campaign didn't have to talk about the principal issues in this campaign -- the dismal economy and an unfathomable debt that will be passed on to our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
But as soon as Romney announced that Ryan was his pick, the Democrats changed course and began attacking Ryan on Medicare, thinking that they had found a weakness that would allow them to continue to paint the Republican ticket as unacceptable to voters. Democrats immediately began making the rounds with reporters and various talk shows, using the Democrat script to paint Ryan as a radical right winger who would cut off granny's Medicare.
Instead of being defensive, though, Romney and Ryan became even aggressive, pointing out that President Obama stole $700 million from Medicare to pay for Obamacare. The Republic tandem also began talking about using Ryan's proposed budget as a framework to save entitlement programs, pointing out that President Obama and the Democrats had not proposed any plan whatsover in three and half years although the programs faced insolvency for future generations. The focus shifted from the earlier distractions of taxes, Bain Capital and the "cancer" ad to talking about saving entitlement programs and addressing the ballooning national debt. By learning about what the Republicans would be proposing, which was not to change Medicare for current recipients and those 55 or older, voters were able to see that the Democrats' plan of "doing nothing" is much more radical and extreme than the Republicans' framework to save much-needed entitlement programs for current and future generations of Americans.
Advantage Romney and Ryan.
The Democrats also discovered in the past week that it is nearly impossible to attack Ryan, a good-looking 42-year-old fitness freak, husband and father, who spends as little time as possible in Washington, traveling home to soccer games in Wisconsin on the weekends. Democrats also found that this young leader is literally a rock star on the campaign trail, bringing in huge crowds everywhere he goes, inspiring them while talking about serious issues and framing them in a way that the average person can understand. President Obama and the Democrats also found that Ryan is able to disagree with them over substantive issues in a way that doesn't stoop to the gutter politics level of the Democrats, but instead attacks their positions with logic, numbers and good old common sense. Americans like that.
In short, President Obama is now facing an adept communicator, Ryan, who can not only inspire voters, which is Obama's strongpoint, but Ryan can do it by providing substantive solutions and facts, which is something Obama has never been able to do. Substance will win over bullshit every time.
Advantage Romney and Ryan.
The change in just one week has been palpable. Romney and Ryan are raking in millions of dollars in donations and attracting tens of thousands at rallies they attend individually and together. Romney appears to be energized, stepping up his game in a way that has impressed even his staunchest critics. In contrast, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have been struggling to raise money and the crowds attending their campaign stops don't appear to be energized or anywhere near the size of the Romney/Ryan crowds. While Ryan seemingly can fill stadiums with potential voters, Biden has trouble filling a large room. And Biden, well, is Biden, often saying the most inappropriate things, trying to be funny, trying to appeal to the Democrats' base, but alienating members of that base as well as independents.
In one week, the campaign has changed dramatically. According to numerous sources, the Obama Campaign is unsettled, confused by the turn of events. They've tried smear tactics, which caused more voters to have a strong negative perception of the President, and they've now tried framing the election around entitlements, but discovered that Romney and Ryan turned the issue into a discussion about the lack leadership by the Obama Administration on fixing the entitlement mess. I wonder what the Obama Campaign will try now?
They certainly can't run on the President's record. That would be an even bigger disaster politically.
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