<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/7191364230/” title=”Mitt-is-a-rubber-stamp by dengre.bj, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7086/7191364230_f9b7ccc16d.jpg” width=”498″ height=”414″ alt=”Mitt-is-a-rubber-stamp”></a>
The beltway potentate made it clear last year at CPAC what he wanted:
All we have to do is replace Obama. … We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. … We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.
And Grover made clear what he considered to be the most important qualification to be the Republican Candidate fro President:
Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.
With his pick of Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has surrendered to the crazies. He has rolled over to show Grover and nutters his belly–hoping for a petting, but fearful of a beating. They own him. He is their rubber stamp.
A Romney Administration will continue the policies of the Bush Administration–especially the tradition of the Vice President running the show while the President meekly follows orders. Ryan will lead. Romney will follow.
I guess we can add Romney’s lack of a backbone to the list of things (like taxes, Bain, Romneycare and the Ryan Budget) that are rude to discuss.
Cheers
amk
In short, dubya admin III on steroids, as bill clinton said. God save ‘murka if it happens.
arguingwithsignposts
When I clicked on “Next Post” I knew what this was going to be about. Still eight (?) frontpagers left to weigh in!
Hill Dweller
The Obama campaign has released an ad calling Romney/Ryan “The Go Back Team”, which is a riff on the Romney campaign calling themselves “America’s comeback team”.
Willard is already trying to distance himself from Ryan’s budget, saying they don’t support every line of it.
NR
@amk:
It’s okay. Nobody can do anything without 60 votes in the Senate. Or so I was repeatedly told in 2009 and 2010.
Violet
I think Romney will be very dangerous in this role. He’s used to telling people what to do, not having to do what others tell him to do. I think he’ll sulk and lash out, each at different times. This is a man, should he win the presidency, who would start a war with [pick a country] just because he could. “That’ll show them they’re not the boss of me!”
I think he’s stuck in some adolescent age and that’s a dangerous person to have running the country.
amk
@Hill Dweller: Already ? This is the second ad in what, two hours ?
Brian R.
@arguingwithsignposts:
It’s a feast day. Let them all have a bite.
wrb
I like.
May steal
TK421
You mean drone strikes will continue and we’ll keep fighting in Afghanistan? There will be secret prisons and indefinite detention at Gitmo? Undocumented immigrants will be deported at record rates? Whistle-blowers will be prosecuted but not torturers? Rich financiers will be protected while everyone else is forced into austerity? Oil-drilling will be radically increased? Income inequality will widen?
Gosh, I would hate to go back to that.
WereBear
@Violet: Adolescence gives him too much credit. I’m thinking toddler, personally.
And isn’t it weird that they loves them some big Leader… and yet keep getting these puppet types?
Alison
Sigh. Was that first line really necessary? Come on…
amk
Sudden influx firebaggers in this thread ? Why Dennis, why ? You’re like a chick magnet to them?
Hill Dweller
Apparently Willard slipped up and introduced Ryan as the next President of the United States.
Dennis G.
@wrb: Steal all you wish…
Chyron HR
@NR:
And since all the Democrats in Congress are exactly the same as Republicans, they should have no trouble getting 60 votes for any GOP bills.
Or so you’ve been saying for the past four years.
Yuppers
@Alison: I’m pretty sure he’s referring to the proper use of the term; thus the extension of the metaphor to the exposure of the belly/etc. Outrage is not always necessary.
TK421
@NR:
And that 60-vote requirement is etched in stone and can never be changed, or something.
Martin
@amk: Sure, already. As Ezra noted, the only reason the GOP even know Ryan’s name is because Obama built him up into a Republican hero. Boehner hates the guy as I suspect most Republican Senators do as well. But the base embraced him under the “Obama must be scared of this guy because he talks about him so much” theory.
This is exactly the VP candidate the Democrats wanted, and Ryan couldn’t have gotten the tap without them. They’ve had those ads ready for months.
Redshift
@amk:
They could have been produced overnight, but I’m betting they had ads produced and campaign themes ready to roll for all of the major VP contenders. Damn, they’re good.
Knowing this puts some of the ads in circulation in a new light. The women’s rights/Planned Parenthood ad has been in heavy circulation here in Virginia. It’s good in general, but now it’s obvious that if McDonnell had been picked, they would have riffed straight off of that.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@NR: You can let that die. Reid sounds like he’s going to change the filibuster rules next congress.
Violet
@WereBear: Maybe he is a toddler. I don’t know. He’s definitely not an adult. He hasn’t dealt with his inner demons. Maybe he is a toddler, what with the sulking and all.
I can’t wait to see how this dynamic plays out on the campaign trail. Mitt is going to be livid inside that the base loves Ryan more and he was forced to choose him. But he can’t show that anger, so he’ll try to hide it. And fail. It’ll come out somehow. Maybe he’ll make backhanded slaps at Ryan. Maybe he’ll demonize the base. Maybe he’ll do something incredibly stupid to show he’s “in charge.” It’ll come out.
amk
@Martin: @Belafon (formerly anonevent): dang, eleventeenth dimensional chess from that kenyan, muslin?
JoyceH
Okay, I think I’m going to have to join the loony right fringe and start demanding Obama release his school records.
I want to KNOW what grades he got at Hogwarts and at the Jedi Academy. (I’ll bet they’re pretty good.)
Ben Franklin
It’s a perfect storm of blandness, which can only be interesting if the attack ads continue on Bain, and now SS/Medicare.
Don’t geevum an inch.
TK421
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
“Reid sounds like he’s going to change the filibuster rules next congress.”
Oh good, just in time.
That will help the Democrats if they control both houses and the presidency.
Dennis G.
@amk: There is that firebagger/Norquist alliance that must always be defended, so it is not such a surprise that they show up in any thread where Grover is mentioned…
Alison
@Yuppers: I hardly think my comment showed “outrage”. And yes, I saw the metaphor, but even still…it just bugged me, and I expressed so calmly.
Davis X. Machina
@Hill Dweller: Obama did the same thing with Joe Biden, IIRC. It’s a common flub, well on the way to a tradition now…
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@JoyceH: Those are not the grades you’re looking for.
amk
@Dennis G.: Aha, gotcha. Had forgotten all about that jane baby/grover love fest.
Hypatia's Momma
That’s…not the job of the President. That whole “separation of powers” thing in the Holy Writ is there to avoid just that.
Ben Franklin
@Hill Dweller:
Do you think Romney can tolerate a subservient role? :)
The Dangerman
He has rolled over to show Grover his nutters?!
/needs glasses
lacp
@wrb: Of course he’s fearful. How would you like to be made to ride on the roof rack?
amk
@Martin: So basically obummer thrust the veep candidate, the 2012 elections framing etc. on mittbot? Love it.
Violet
@Ben Franklin: Romney cannot. He’s used to being the one to tell others what to do. He won’t last long in the “being told what to do” role. He’ll revolt. How he’ll revolt is the question.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Ben Franklin: I think Romney has demonstrated that he’s more than willing to be subservient.
To money.
Martin
@amk: Well, I think Ryan is a genuine case of 11 dimensional chess. I think Obama wanted to keep a recent governor off the ticket because it’s easy for governors to advance positive claims and policies – particularly when so many of their state recoveries came thanks to Obama’s stimulus. So they’d be strong runners simply by claiming credit for Obama’s achievements – and that’s a difficult thing to run against.
In Ryan, there’s nothing there. There’s nothing to take credit for. There’s no evidence for his ideas. And while the tea party loves this guy, the GOP hates him. That’s not a recipe to pull in undecided voters.
And if Obama wanted to have a referendum on income equality and fairness for the middle class, he couldn’t have picked a better pair of opponents.
Hill Dweller
In 2005, Ryan wrote The Social Security Personal Savings Guarantee and Prosperity Act of 2005, which, obviously, was an attempt to privatize social security.
It was too radical for Dubya’s administration…
Ben Franklin
@Violet: @danah gaz (fka gaz):
Holy Moly. He is rubber. You’re both right :)
Hypatia's Momma
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
To be fair, I’m willing to be subservient for that sort of money, too. But then, I don’t want to be President and I’m opposed to harming others to get it.
Martin
Unfortunately, for all we know that means that Adelson wrote another check. Pre Citizen United, that might have meant something.
Linda Featheringill
I don’t think that Romney is used to the subservient role. Or being an also-ran, Ryan & whatshisname. It probably will be very stressful.
Where’d I put that popcorn?
JGabriel
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Dennis G. @ Top:
The last time Romney implemented a program Republicans designed and advocated, it got called Romneycare and the entire Republican base hated it.
Does Romney really think it’d work out any different this time?
Romney will do what his base and backers tell him, then, when it fails miserably, they’ll blame him, call him a secret liberal, and look for the next “real, pure” conservative to do their fantasy bidding.
.
Bruce S
I love this choice – it actually doubles down on the sociopathic aspects of Romney’s record. Paul Ryan is Dick Cheney’s favorite congressman (“I worship the ground he walks on”), he’s an open advocate of the sociopathic morality of Ayn Rand (“Rand provided the clearest moral foundation for capitalism”), and Ryan’s budget drives up deficits, increases inequality and actually increases the cost of providing health care to seniors – not just for seniors themselves, but as % of GDP which is the exact wrong direction for any putative health care “reform.”
Romney has extinquished any intimation that he might be a secret moderate pandering to the lunatic base – a Bloomberg type in a Tea Party Trojan Horse. Ann Coulter’s hair was on fire this past week. This coming week she’ll be slightly less hysterical, except in claiming victory over any intimations of sanity or moderation coming from the Romney campaign. Ditto Sean Hannity. That’s what Romney buys with Ryan. He’s more than welcome to it. Even the execrable Chuck Todd seemed to be shaking his head at this one – acknowledging it as a signal of Romney’s weakness, in effect an act of desperation. Ryan is the thinking right-wing crank’s Sarah Palin. He probably DOES “read all of them.”
4tehlulz
So under a Romney administration, who would Mitt outsource contol of the nuclear arsenal to?
OzoneR
@Martin:
What’s likely to happen I think is the election turns into the issue of the deficit/debt/spending cause that’s what Romney will have Ryan speak about. The main danger for Dems here is people think that and the economy/jobs are linked because they’re both bad.
It’s one of those “if p happens with q, then p must lead to q” situations.
JGabriel
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Hill Dweller:
I’m imagining a thought balloon over Ryan’s head in response: “Jesus, that was quick. Thanks for watching my back, jackass.”
.
The Ancient Randonneur
@4tehlulz:
Halliburton. Dick Cheney will never go away or die.
NancyDarling
@Alison: Dainty sensibilities much?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Hypatia’s Momma: I hate to quote Fight Club for nuggets of wisdom, but sometimes Chuck Palahniuk was spot on.
“The things you own end up owning you” (movie)
“the things you used to own, now they own you.” (book)
In a rare instance of a movie outshining it’s written precursor, the movie quote is better.
Anyway, fuck money. Being poor is better.
Ask a Buddhist. Better yet, ask yourself if you’d REALLY like to be Mitt Romney. Or do you think you’d escape that somehow? I’m fairly certain he was born human.
OzoneR
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
As true as that is, American society doesn’t make it possible to live poor. It forces you to be a slave to money for survival.
Todd
I’m now watching Billy Jack on Netflix, in honor of the firebaggers on this thread.
sagesource
@NR: Almost correct. But you forgot one thing. The President can start a war by himself. He’s Commander in Chief, after all. Good luck on Congress trying to defund the Crusade against Iran after it’s already stared and American troops have died.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@OzoneR: I think it’s relative.
Certainly, I don’t like wondering where my next meal will come from. But OTOH, I’ve cast off the shackles of a six figure income years ago, and am immeasurably better off for it.
Maybe I should put it this way:
If you chase money, you’re in a rat race. Even if you win, ultimately you lose. How many wealthy people do you know who are content?
People confuse what they want. Most people I know who believe money will make them happy, actually want peace. They conflate money with freedom and leap from there to peace, and yet it’s an ever dangled carrot. They hope money will bring them peace and it never does.
Cut out the middle man. Chase peace.
Or as that great sage Douglas Adams put it: “The problem was this: Most of the people were unhappy most of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this, but they involved the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.” (apologies to him, quoting from memory)
AxelFoley
@NR:
That’s cool. We never had 60 votes in the first place, asshole.
wrb
I’m thinking that they are going to be crying soon. Their blue-eyed boy and their policies are now tied to a weak Romney campaign with fatal ethics problems.
This is a perfect opportunity for the Democrats to pound both into a bloody pulp that will never rise again.
Their play should have been to stay clear of Mitt and try for a coup in Tampa.
Well played, Obama
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@AxelFoley: Let’s hope that since Romney raised the stakes of this to a referendum on ideology (by bringing Ryan on to the ticket) that when Obama crushes him in November the butthurt will rain down on the downticket races as well.
Let’s bury Ayn Rand once and for all. Huzzah!
The Other Alex Jones
And with this materstroke, the Brothers Koch probably will spin up a false-flag operation to make Romney somehow become incapable of holding office, forcing Ryan to the Presidency. This assumes of course that the GOP wins the Presidency; this will be done just after he’s sworn in as to not cause chaos between election and inauguration. (And with Mitt’s ‘accidental’ pronouncement of Ryan as ‘The next President of the United States’, who can argue that?)
@Hill Dweller:
Gawd does that sound Telelvangeical.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@wrb: “Their play should have been to stay clear of Mitt and try for a coup in Tampa.”
Honestly, I think that would have been even worse for the GOP. Try as I might, I can’t envision a scenario where changing candidates 3 months before the election would have been anything short of disaster.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Hill Dweller: “Willard is already trying to distance himself from Ryan’s budget, saying they don’t support every line of it.”
LOL!
So he picked his Veep, and can’t even stand by him a few hours after announcement? That should play in Peoria.
LOL LOL LOL!
Ben Cisco
@4tehlulz: Netanyahu, who else?
wrb
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
I don’t see them winning this election either way. Mitt is damaged and it is too late to switch. However I think the right-wing ideology would have emerged less damaged if they’d stayed clear of Mitt.
wrb
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
Man, the dude is limber. The floppery reminds me of the guy who danced with Funkadelic.
What courage Mitt has projected today.
Chris
Again, I understand Grover’s wet dream, being that that’s exactly how things worked in the Gilded Age, but I wonder how they square it with the massive security state that’s appeared in the meantime. Those things aren’t run by committee. Maybe a de factor power sharing agreement, where the president abdicates all domestic responsibilities and Congress abdicates all foreign ones?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@wrb: I’ve said this early (since the GOP primaries opened up), and so often that it will probably end up etched on my tombstone:
Romney will win the nomination and lose the general.
Nobody wanted to bet me. Wankers. I could use some new boots =)
Bruce S
Most provocative comment I’ve read to date on the rationale for Ryan’s choice, from Noam Sheiber:
WereBear
@Bruce S: Makes a lot of sense to me. Number one rule of the rising MBA: Escape all blame.
However, does this fellow explain why “Mit should be winning”? Is that based on the economy? Which admittedly sucks, but a lot of people still blame the Republicans for that; rightly so.
WaterGirl
@Redshift: You guys keep mentioning new ads. LInks, please?
Edited for politeness.
Mike E
rMoney/rAyn for Amercia
MsInformed
@Ben Franklin: Ask Ann.
Gravenstone
I fully expect multiple ads featuring the available footage of Norquist talking about how all he wants in a Republican president is a warm body with enough digits to manipulate the signing pen. No thinking required (or is that allowed?)
By election day, Norquist will be as well known (if not better) than Romney/Ryan. And with his exposure, one hopes the Republican hopes fade with him.
Villago Delenda Est
@Martin:
Which goes to show just how easy it is to manipulate the utter fucktards of the base.
LanceThruster
This is either a tongue twister or a Beetlejuice/Bloody Mary incantation —
Rubber Mitty Ryan Rumper
Rubber Mitty Ryan Rumper
Rubber Mitty Ryan Rumper
Rome Again
I don’t have a search function at the moment to check and see if anyone has posted this, but, Free Republic is still standing against the Romney ticket, even with Ryan on it.
I gotta hand it to them on their principled stand, even if they’re crazy. I admire the steadfast stand they are taking:
From Jim Robinson: