Who is Romney’s Vice Presidential Nominee?

Posted on August 11, 2012 at 8:33 am by Bob Cesca

Romney will announce his choice at 9:05 a.m. EDT — 30 minutes from now — aboard the USS Wisconsin. No word on whether he’ll be wearing a stupid flight suit.

Guess who’s from Wisconsin?

Late reports last night indicated that it might be Very Serious Young Gun Paul Ryan who agreed with Glenn Beck that progressivism is a cancer. Yeah. And blaming Bain for losing your health insurance coverage is totally out of bounds.

At the very least whoever he chooses will be able to accurately describe the role of the vice president without using the phrase “position flexible.”

Discuss here.

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  • Lazarus Durden

    Besides the fact I’m taking wicked glee in this I think it’s absolutely great for the discussion about wealth inequality and where we need to go in this country.

    Lawrence O’Donnell said he wanted Rick Santorum to win the GOP nomination so we could finally have the big culture war fight on abortion, and gay rights. While those are important I wanted Mitt Romney to get the nomination specifically so we could talk about wealth inequality and the double standard the 1% get on just about everything.

    By picking Paul Ryan not only can we keep talking about the Wall Street poster boy, but now we can get into a debate on this Ayn Randian free market nonsense. Now the Paulites, and Free Market Libertarians will get their day in the sun, and maybe, just maybe we can finally put all that shit to bed once and for all.

    Fantastic. Keep up the good work Romney!

    • agrazingmoose

      I worry that Ryan will try to downplay his plans and that the Dems won’t play it up enough.

      Please tell me that I am wrong.

      • http://twitter.com/KenInCO Ken Johnson

        You are wrong.

        • agrazingmoose

          Thanks. But, the just released WH statement that the Republican ticket will take us back to the Bush “failed Bush policies” is not a winning argument.

          The Obama team needs to make it very clear why it will be much, much, much worse than that.

          • jewelbomb

            Give ‘em time. It’s only been a few hours since the pick has been made official. Rest-assured, Obama and the campaign is gonna spank Romney for this.

          • Lazarus Durden

            They’re gonna be just fine. President Obama has been trying to wrap the Ryan plan around Mitt Romney’s neck for some time now. Mitt just did it for him.

            The Romney team all but conceded today they aren’t confident the GOP base was going to turn out for Mitt.

            What does Ryan add? Nothing but negatives. He doesn’t add anything on foreign policy. He has no major legislative accomplishments. He’s handsome and he’s got his plan. That’s it. That’s why you’d pick him.

            So either Mitt can say “I think Paul Ryan is a good lookin’ fella! Good lookin’ enough to be my VP.” or it’s the Ryan plan. Either one is a disaster among independent voters, except maybe the handsome part.

            Look at how the Obama campaign has gone after Mittens on taxes and his business record. They’ll do the same thing to the Paul Ryan plan. The gloves are off now. This is a new Democratic party. They have flipped the script on the GOP.

          • burbank_burt

            1 – I beg to differ. Ryan looks like a weasel. ;)
            2 – http://nunsonthebus.com/
            3 – http://tinyurl.com/mitts-lies/
            4 – Keep up the good work Romney! Go!
            5 – Get poppin’! http://tinyurl.com/d6t34

          • Victor_the_Crab

            Paul Ryan looks like Eddie Munster with blue eyes.

          • i_a_c

            Could not agree more. I can see the Medicare ads in Florida already. Either Romney owns the Ryan budget or he’s shown as a say-anything flip-flopper again.

            Paul Ryan isn’t going to help Romney win any electoral votes but they gave the Democrats a campaign issue for free.

            Edit: I forgot to say that I also think it will resonate downticket, because most Republicans voted for that heinous Ryan budget.

          • burbank_burt
      • Victor_the_Crab

        Oh I do think Team Obama will definetly play up Paul Ryan’s mean, screwy plans, and Ryan will have no choice but to answer for them. This is a bad choice for Mitt Romney, and on par with everything he touches blowing up in his face.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Christopher-Brannon/553293016 Christopher Brannon

    Anyone remember how McCain announced his VP pick? While the pick was all screwed up (they choose… poorly) the announcement was actually skillfully handled, strategically timed to stomp on the momentum coming out of the Democratic National Convention and steal away the news cycle.

    Why the hell would Romney announce his choice at the crack of dawn on a Saturday? Gods this campaign is inept.

    • http://phydeauxpseaks.blogspot.com Bob Rutledge

      Hopefully some research monkeys are poring over obscure news agencies and backwater town newspapers to make sure that Rmoney didn’t release his tax records at the same time.

    • missliberties

      I think they are listening to Bill Kristol.

      • D_C_Wilson

        Why?

    • D_C_Wilson

      Yeah, it went something like this:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qUVQDmLf7s

  • agrazingmoose

    Why would Ryan choose to throw away his political career this way? He has worked for the government for most of his adult life. Does he plan to go back to flipping burgers at McDonalds?

    • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole
    • Lazarus Durden

      So he can make a shit ton of money selling books, and being another speaker on the Conservative lecture circuit. He’s not throwing away his career. He’s cashing in.

    • burbank_burt

      I thought the same thing!

    • missliberties

      I thought Ryan looked a bit sad this morning.

      He had to cancel his family vacation to be dragged into the swamp.

    • nathkatun7

      I bet you he has lucrative money making jobs waiting for him from billionaires like the Koch brothers. I don’t think Paul Ryan has anything to loose. If Mitt Romney is not elected, Ryan will probably be the GOP candidate for 2016. Believe me, right wingers take care of their own.

    • D_C_Wilson

      Three words:

      “Fox News Contributor”.

      Write them down, because by this time next year, that will be Ryan’s job title.

  • http://phydeauxpseaks.blogspot.com Bob Rutledge

    Is it possible that there’s actually an intelligent person behind all the boneheaded decisions being made in the Rmoney campaign? Could it be that this [probably hypothetical] intelligent person is very upset that his party has been hijacked by closeted racists and proud idiots, and has decided — for the [actual, not political] good of the party — to run on all the things the crazies want, knowing that Rmoney will get whupped but good in the election, and thereby breaking the grip the loonies have on the party?

    Because otherwise, holy shit the stupidity.

    • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

      “Is it possible…”

      No.

      • http://phydeauxpseaks.blogspot.com Bob Rutledge

        Heh.

        I do think the latter is more likely, but goddamn there’s some serious unforced errors happening in a supposedly serious campaign.

        • http://phydeauxpseaks.blogspot.com Bob Rutledge

          Seriously serious.

          A whole series of seriously serious.

          I’m not kidding.

        • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

          True, but it’s just a poorly run campaign, or, Romney didn’t hire no rocket scientists!

    • Lazarus Durden

      Romney has intelligent people working for his campaign. It’s just none of them have a spine to stand up the slobbering at the mouth GOP base.

      They saw what happened to Jon Huntsman when he did that.

    • D_C_Wilson

      If there is a such a person, he would know that the republican response to every defeat is to tack further to the right. So, if he thinks the extremists are batshit crazy now, wait until 2016.

      • http://phydeauxpseaks.blogspot.com Bob Rutledge

        Well… yes, but how much further to the fucking right can they go, without actually, literally, branding themselves on the foreheads with swastikas, chaining women to kitchen stoves and rounding up undesirables for Final Solutioning?

        [edited for poor sentence structure... "to the kitchens"? WTF?]

        • D_C_Wilson

          Stop giving them ideas!

  • joseph2004

    Ryan it is. A true reformer. Finally!

    The Bain lies are best summed up this way:

    http://news.investors.com/photopopup.aspx?id=621814

    • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

      A “true reformer”?

      Horseshit.

      Nice cartoon, Joseph. You know, it’s so cool to fling shit at an underpaid guy who lost his wife to cancer due to Mitt Romney’s money mongering.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_S7NUGMJ2FDHYATRLWFEFCC5CQI schemata

        joe there is just like his idol, ryan. neither give a single shit about any person who is not themselves. ayn randian sociopaths that would kill their own grandma if it meant “sticking it” to a liberal.

    • http://phydeauxpseaks.blogspot.com Bob Rutledge

      Are you back again, miscreant?

    • Victor_the_Crab

      How’s life in Htrae for ya?

    • Lazarus Durden

      LOL.

      What’s up Joseph? How’s the trollin’ today?

    • D_C_Wilson

      Hey, Joe, are you grandparents still alive? I would suggest finding room for them next to you in your parents’ basement if Ryan’s “reforms” before realty.

  • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

    If nothing else, Romney shows exceptional aptitude re creating the “perfect storm” in the race to get himself beat all to hell!

  • GeneralLerong

    Charles Pierce has nailed it with “zombie-eyed granny-starver.”

    I love that and can’t repeat it often enough, like a kid who’s just learned a new bad word.

    zombie-eyed granny-starver

    • muselet

      You beat me to it. It’s a terrific turn of phrase.

      I think we should fasten that label around Paul Ryan’s neck like an anchor. He deserves it, and the howls of outrage from the Right will be high-larious.

      –alopecia

  • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

    The Obama Campaign response:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWyk-Mr6cfc&feature=player_embedded#!

    Adding……..Obama & Co. named them “The Go Back Team”
    http://www.barackobama.com/romney/ryan/

    • Lazarus Durden

      I heard this was the unofficial response from the Obama Campaign on the Ryan VP pick:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGp9P6QvMjY

      • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

        lol. :)

        I don’t think it would be wise to get too cocky about the Ryan pick (as Oliver Willis is doing). Always better to treat it as a serious, very serious, threat.

        • Lazarus Durden

          Oh it is. I’ve always thought President Obama’s chances at a second term were high, and lately a lock but I was concerned about the Senate and taking back the House. The GOP has made it impossible to govern without a lock on Congress.

          The Ryan pick puts that goal even closer. Plus we can have a debate about austerity and the social safety net. Maybe we’ll actually take one tiny step toward the realization that*gasp* the S word isn’t so horrible.

        • muselet

          Overconfidence is never a smart thing in politics, but I’m feeling pretty darned good right about now. Especially since we get to mainstream Charles Pierce’s can’t-be-repeated-often-enough description of Paul Ryan: the zombie-eyed granny-starver.

          –alopecia

        • Victor_the_Crab

          I don’t think cockiness and overconfidence is a problem with the Obama campaign team. Of course the Romney team’s ability to shoot themselves in the foot on a daily basis is making this too good.

          • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

            “I don’t think cockiness and overconfidence is a problem with the Obama campaign team.”

            They aren’t. I’m just worried about Democrats as a whole. Read Oliver Willis’ last few posts.

          • Lazarus Durden

            Don’t worry about Dems. It’s understandable but this is exactly what the Democrats needed.

            Where the Dems lose is when this “Well both parties are the same why should I vote for either one?” For some reason people who lean left buy into this crap.

            There could never be more of a stark contrast now. Yeah President Obama isn’t the radical socialist Progressive that some on the Left want, but if someone knows of a more clear example of the GOP saying “Hey We’re the Party of the Rich” then a Romney/Ryan 2012 ticket I can’t think of one.

          • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

            True, that!

  • muselet

    I don’t think Mitt Romney, left to his own devices, would have chosen Paul Ryan. Unfortunately for Romney, the base doesn’t like him and doesn’t trust him, so he had to name someone like Ryan or face the prospect of being tarred and feathered. Ryan won’t help Romney with any group other than the Republican base, and as details of his Pathway to Penury become more widely known he may actually lose votes for Romney just about everywhere else. Choosing (or being forced to choose) Paul Ryan makes Romney’s task harder.

    Couldn’t happen to a more deserving fellow.

    And I hate to say “I told you so,” but …:

    The Republican ticket in 2012 is almost certainly going to look like a piece of white bread with a schmear of mayonnaise.

    –alopecia

    • Lazarus Durden

      I see them losing votes. Ryan’s plan is going to be dissected to death now, or it’ll be front and center in the news along with Mittens refusal to release his tax returns.

      Plus you add into the fact that the Obama campaign is leaving nothing to chance it might be blowout come November.

      My mother is volunteering for the Obama Campaign in Colorado and they are encouraging people to vote early, or by mail in ballot. His ground game is freaking amazing. They are leaving absolutely nothing to chance in the battleground states.

      Romney on the other hand… eh not so much. They are counting on the base turning out I suppose but what they don’t understand is the base has shrunk. This isn’t 2010. This is a Presidential Election and Team Obama is running up the scoreboard.

      • muselet

        I hope you’re right, but there’s nothing to be gained by even thinking the word “blowout” at this stage. That way lies complacency and disaster. If it does turn out to be a 50-states-plus-DC rout—fingers crossed!—it’ll be because of hard work done between now and October on GOTV efforts, not because Mitt Romney chose a doofus as his running mate.

        Always remember, roughly half the population of the country really, really dislikes Barack Obama.

        (Yes, you know all this already, but it bears repeating.)

        –alopecia

        • Lazarus Durden

          I feel ya alopecia but I don’t use the word blowout in a cocky way, or I’m not meaning to. I’m using as in I wanna run up the scoreboard.

          I don’t want President Obama just to win I want him to crush Mitt Romney. I wanna rout the GOP in Congress. I want a mandate election. I like seeing Harry Reid take the fight to Mitt Romney. I want the Democrats to be bold, and have the GOP scared of us for once. I want the term progressive to become synonymous with winning elections.

          No more wringing of hands saying “Oh gosh I hope we do alright.” Screw that. We’re gonna win. We’re gonna win because we’re right, and they’re wrong objectively. This is our time, and I’m tired of the GOP stealing victory from us. I’m glad President Obama is the standard bearer because he’s smart, and a fighter. He’s not leaving anything to chance and I’m with him.

          Basically I want freakin’ Change, and I’m pushing for it.

          Obama/Biden 2012. Let’s kick some ass.

          • muselet

            This. A thousand times this.

            –alopecia

  • muselet

    Well, Mitt Romney’s made The Dirty Digger happy.

    –alopecia

  • D_C_Wilson

    I still think he should have gone with Jenna Jameson. If anyone knows about “position flexible”, it’d be her.

  • zirgar

    I feel utterly confident in saying Mitt Romney will pick Paul Ryan as his VP nominee. Of this I have no doubt. None. At all.