From Politico:
There is an unmistakable consensus among Republican operatives in Washington: Romney has taken a risk with Ryan that has only a modest chance of going right -- and a huge chance of going horribly wrong.
..
They're worried about inviting Medicare -- usually death for Republicans -- into the campaign.
Republicans are very afraid of Ryan
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_Kevin Graham
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_EAllusion
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Re: Republicans are very afraid of Ryan
You know, one of my employees and I had a conversation about what would happen if the Republicans win the Senate, House, and Presidency. They're a moderate favorite to win the Senate, a huge favorite to keep the House and a slight dog to win the presidency, so this is a very realistic possibility.
I listed some things that I think you can kiss goodbye, such as federal funding to planned parenthood. That was untouchable as recently as GWB. In my view, I thought that a full Republican government would go after entitlements and adopt a medicare reform significantly shrinks the program. It's been too much of a focus in conservative circles in the pat few years. This used to be completely untouchable in conventional wisdom - political suicide to go after, which is what my employee thought. I disagree and think that things have changed and Republican PR is exceptionally good at pushing any view. Partisanship guarantees a substantial backing for any view a major party backs. We just watched public school teachers get thoroughly villanized as selfish thugs in WI, which a decade ago would've been thought impossible. Political memories are so short that I think you can do pretty much anything early on and try to weather the consequences later on. Nearly anything. I think my employee came around on that and we talked about how medicare reform would be sold.
Then, coincidentally, Ryan got the VP nod and now we're witnessing that strategy in action beforehand. It's kinda fun to see. And I already feel vindicated in my thought process. The bit that through me offguard, even though it was already tried, is the attempt to portray Democrats as the one attempting to break medicare and the Ryan plan as its savior. I guess that's the Rove school of trying to turn a strength into a weakness, but I didn't think that prong would have as prominent of a role as it does.
I listed some things that I think you can kiss goodbye, such as federal funding to planned parenthood. That was untouchable as recently as GWB. In my view, I thought that a full Republican government would go after entitlements and adopt a medicare reform significantly shrinks the program. It's been too much of a focus in conservative circles in the pat few years. This used to be completely untouchable in conventional wisdom - political suicide to go after, which is what my employee thought. I disagree and think that things have changed and Republican PR is exceptionally good at pushing any view. Partisanship guarantees a substantial backing for any view a major party backs. We just watched public school teachers get thoroughly villanized as selfish thugs in WI, which a decade ago would've been thought impossible. Political memories are so short that I think you can do pretty much anything early on and try to weather the consequences later on. Nearly anything. I think my employee came around on that and we talked about how medicare reform would be sold.
Then, coincidentally, Ryan got the VP nod and now we're witnessing that strategy in action beforehand. It's kinda fun to see. And I already feel vindicated in my thought process. The bit that through me offguard, even though it was already tried, is the attempt to portray Democrats as the one attempting to break medicare and the Ryan plan as its savior. I guess that's the Rove school of trying to turn a strength into a weakness, but I didn't think that prong would have as prominent of a role as it does.