GatewayRedbirds.com

Great way for the unemployed to drink their Irish coffee

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"don't be mean to me"

weak

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/ ... hp?ref=fpa

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"This is a heavyweight bout indeed."--John Rooney, Oct. 27, 2011

You're almost being too kind to just call Romney a crybaby. He seems to genuinely think it's out of bounds to criticize him on any of the aspects that he's running on. He's only on the national stage because of his governorship of Massachusetts, but his passage of an identical bill is not relevant to his criticism of Obamacare, because apparently it's not a healthcare issue, it's a states' rights issue. He single-handedly stewarded the SLC Olympic games to success, but he can't bear any of the blame for the huge cost overruns that he oversaw and lobbied for along the way. His experience in business and finance is the one thing he's supposedly got going for him, but as Jon Stewart just put it, he wasn't even managing his own business or finance in the past decade and a half, and thus it's somehow a personal attack to hold him accountable for his business's policies. Hell, now the guy is blatantly injecting religion into the race since he's gotten past the primaries where it was a negative for him.

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Romney doesn't genuinely believe anything. This is standard political ticky tacky BS to score media cycle points. Yes, his defenses and counter-attacks have been weak. But that's mainly because he is a thoroughly flawed candidate, which everybody has known since last year.

Barring a spectacular scandal, the Republicans are going to lose to an incumbent presiding over a poor economy whose best-known legislation has at best mediocre popular support. It's mind-boggling how their establishment decided that a private equity suit (read: he's not afraid of closing down factories and laying workers off) with some apparent tax skeletons in his closet would be the best salesman for tax breaks for "job creators." On top of that, whenever they attack Obamacare, they're doing so on behalf of a candidate whose biggest legislative accomplishment was a state version of Obamacare. This is just ridiculous.

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We want information. Information.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012 ... -saturday/

looking like Paul Ryan.

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The White House has to be happy about this.

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"This is a heavyweight bout indeed."--John Rooney, Oct. 27, 2011

Ryan is a shocker, but it makes sense. The Romney campaign is really floundering and they need something that will create buzz and give them momentum moving forward. Tim Pawlenty or Rob Portman wouldn't do that. This is really similar to the Palin choice. It's hard to believe, but that was actually a positive for McCain. I hope people will be smart enough to see that Ryan is an empty suit who consistently lies about basic economics, but I doubt that will happen. It's a good choice for Romney.

Intrade, for those who don't know, is a prediction market that allows people (in other countries, because in America, placing bets online is a tool of the antichrist) to bet on political outcomes. It gives a good picture of the probability that certain events will take place. Currently, the market thinks Ryan is 96% likely to be the choice. Here is a chart that shows what the market believed the odds of Ryan being chosen were over the last year and a half. It shows just how surprising this pick is.

I agree he's a good choice for Romney, longhorn. I watched the event - he gave a good speech and it appears he will be an asset to the campaign.

Then I watched the all too predictable coverage, flipping between the 3 news networks - CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. Between Fox and NBC you'd think they were talking about 2 different people - Fox portraying Ryan as a budget hawk/deficit reducer, MSNBC as someone who voted for bills that added trillions to the deficit. Absolutely no attempt at showing both strengths and weaknesses of the guy. At least with CNN there is some attempt at a balanced report. To call either Fox or MSNBC a news channel is a stretch as they're basically political cheerleaders for the GOP and Dems respectively which I just find hilarious and sad at the same time.

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"I love to play this game of baseball - I love putting on this uniform."

Paul Ryan?

Well, the lines in the sand couldn't be drawn more deeper.

Ryan is a good choice based on the avg. voter, I disagree with most of his policies (especially socially where he's extremely conservative) as well as the belief that lower taxation and gutting entitlements will boost the economy based on trickle down economics and expected GDP rises. It's ironic that their basis of economic recovery (under their plan) is based on hope and change with the economy rather than something substantial. A 5 point plan isn't going to recover the economy. Nor can you balance the budget by lowering taxes and raising defense spending.

America feels the same way about medicare as they do about health care in care general. They'd rather see it run poorly than overhauled and both sides feel the same about each other's opposing viewpoints.

Strengths: Well-spoken, charisma, known in DC, attractive, younger, midwesterner, intelligent, economically savvy, detailed oriented.

Weaknesses: Might not relate with independent voters, career politician, negative in class warfare debate given his economic plan, not used to media attention, will have to defend medicare plan every step of the way.

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Please run for Governor, Mr. Feingold!