Per the NYTimes:
1:17 a.m. | Updated Mitt Romney is scheduled to announce his vice presidential candidate on Saturday in Norfolk, Va., with several signs pointing toward Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin emerging as the leading candidate for the position.
Mr. Romney is set to disclose the selection as he tours the battleship U.S.S. Wisconsin at 8:45 a.m. on Saturday, the campaign announced Friday evening. The announcement ends a four-month search for a running mate on the opening day of a four-day bus tour through four critical battleground states.
A confidant of Mr. Ryan’s confirmed early Saturday that aides believed Mr. Romney had settled on the Wisconsin congressman to join the Republican ticket, but all advisers had been sworn to secrecy. Three senior Republican officials said that they, too, believed that Mr. Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, had emerged as the top choice….
… which means, if it turns out not to be Ryan, look for news of a ‘confidant’ being stuffed in a Wisconsin wood chipper.
While we are all waiting on tender hooks (/snark), the redoubtable TBogg has a link-stuffed, all-the-hits roundup on the career of “The Mergers & Acquisitions Man“, suitable for framing or fowarding to your low-information relations who wonder why everybody is trash-talking that guy on the USS Wisconsin podium:
I have had many conversations among friends and family as to exactly why Willard Mitt “Mitt” Romney wants to be President of these here United States….
[H]e doesn’t exactly have a long history of giving to his country; hiding out in a palace in France to avoid the Vietnam War draft (which he supported) and then lying about “longing” to serve. On this point, it seems that Mitt’s antipathy towards American military service (at least if your name is Romney) seems to have trickled down to his progeny…Stepping in and running the Salt Lake City Olympics doesn’t really count as public service since the Olympics are a private enterprise, albeit this one in particular was financed by the federal government in record-setting dollars while Mitt called dibs on the credit. The fact that he and his Salt Lake City brethren personally profited from the government largesse was probably just a lucky coincidence. Mitt Romney did have a cup of coffee as Governor of Massachusetts although his record there seems to have been wiped clean like so many hard-drives, leaving behind only his bastard child RomneyCare who, unfortunately for Mitt, keeps showing up at the most awkward times…
And the irreplaceable Charles P. Pierce explains that “Paul Ryan Is Not A Vice President; Paul Ryan Is A Fake“:
One day, some years from now, I’m going to figure out how Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin, managed to fool so many people for so long. He’s a garden-variety supply-side faker…
He gets credit for sincerely wanting to “reform” entitlements, when his entire career makes it quite plain that he doesn’t believe in the concept of entitlements, let alone the ones we actually have. He gets a pass on obvious mendacity that none of us would buy from, say, Herman Cain. (In a way, it’s not dissimilar to all those valentines to the mighty intellect of Newt Gingrich that we read back in the early 1990’s, until everybody figured out that Newt’s default position on almost everything was being a thoroughgoing creep.) Outside of the very real possibility that it’s all being done to give Paul Krugman a stroke, I don’t get it…His deep and abiding teenage crush on Ayn Rand couldn’t outlast a barrage of public criticism from nuns. He cut and ran on the political philosophy he’d heretofore said was formative. And when the president really let go a right hand, Ryan went meeping back to his happy place.
“History will not be kind to a president who, when it came time to confront our generation’s defining challenge, chose to duck and run,” Ryan said. “The president refuses to take responsibility for the economy and refuses to offer a credible plan to address the most predictable economic crisis in our history.”
This is a guy in love with his own concocted genius. Pick him if you want, Willard. I don’t think he’s got the chin for it.
Earlier in the evening, commentor Mr. Papercuts pointed out that under all normal political metrics Virginia Governor McDonnell would be a smarter choice. Which under Rmoney-rules kinda proves it wwon’t happen, but if it does, kudos MP!
MDC
Romdroid-Chocula 2012!
Kane
What a perfect contrast for the GOP ticket. A presidential candidate with a long history of tax dodging, and a vp candidate with a long history of arguing that the safety net must be dismantled because of the lack of revenue.
Kane
Dems are going to pound Ryan. There will be no saving this Ryan’s privates.
Alison
@Kane: LOL seriously. After the announcement, Romney will release his tax returns and say “Yup – I *didn’t* pay any fucking taxes. And here’s Ayn Rand’s favorite cabana boy to explain why that’s TOTALLY AWESOME OF ME.”
Elizabelle
Any chance Romney won’t make it out of Tampa as the GOP nominee, and that Ryan gets annointed?
What bizarro timing for a VP pick.
Then maybe it would be Ryan-McDonnell from Virginia? …
Jay S
OK, I’m waiting for the flip flop. How long can Romney stand by his man, who ever it is?
Spaghetti Lee
@Elizabelle:
I’ve heard some people speculate that Romney not making it out of the convention would amount to the PTB shoving him offstage and replacing him with someone electable, and that Democrats should be wary of that. I for one think that would be the best fucking thing that could happen to the Democrats. Can you imagine that weasel Paul Ryan trying to organize local campaign offices, hire workers, etc., in less than 3 months? Romney couldn’t be arsed to to it over the last year. Let alone the big fat chasm it would create in the party between Romney loyalists and wingnut true-believers. Hell, I’d start going to church again regularly if that kind of chaos happens.
Elizabelle
Gawd. Checking in on MSNBC.
Chuckie Todd chatting up David Gregory on Paul Ryan being the VP choice.
Lotta my least favorite peeps heard from.
Now back to Turner Classic Movies.
Mark S.
This is such a terrible pick. I’m beginning to think this election might be a total landslide.
Elizabelle
Is this the earliest anyone has ever announced a VP pick?
(Catching up on Dennis G’s thread now.)
Bizarre.
Baron Elmo
Wow. And here I was, thinking that Jeebus didn’t love me nearly enough (hey, lots of sins, what can I say?) to allow Da Mittster to tap Ryan for his veep, thereby making Social Security and Medicare major issues in this campaign.
If this be true, I suspect more than a few conservative oldsters are going to have a much harder time pulling the switch for the GOP come November. They won’t vote for the communist ni-CLANG!, but might just stay home in disgust. Could be a major shot in the arm for Dems in downticket races, folks…
baldheadeddork
@Elizabelle:
I don’t believe so. Republican party rules require a candidate to have won a certain number of primaries/caucuses to be entered for the nomination. Those rules could theoretically be suspended if Romney failed to get the nomination on the first ballot, but that won’t happen. He has the delegates he needs to win and the GOP brass does not want the riot that would erupt if the nomination was handed to someone.
But, I won’t be surprised at all if the GOP brass who cornered McCain into choosing Palin forced Romney to have a shotgun wedding with Ryan, and that their motives are more about setting Ryan up for 2016 than helping Romney win this year. Once Ryan accepts the nomination he’s done in Congress, but he could definitely use this as the start of his 2016 campaign at the top of the ticket.
transientseeker
Since Rmoney will be announcing on a ship, maybe he can remind us of our better days by hanging a “Mission Accomplished” banner behind him.
Yutsano
@Elizabelle: That could only happen if Willard doesn’t make it past the first ballot. And there is absolutely no way the Paultards would ever let some brash upstart who doesn’t even claim the Libertarian mantle take the rightful glory that belongs to their true Messiah. But if he doesn’t…let’s just say shit gets serious. Because all the delegates are released from their pledged votes.
Mike
@Elizabelle: No. Kerry picked earlier, and picked a guy to appease the base. Not a great precedent for Romney.
piratedan
RomRy: “We’re filthy rich and we’re not gonna take it anymore!”
Spaghetti Lee
@Yutsano:
Weren’t the Paul people trying to gather enough table scraps to be allowed a seat of power at Tampa? Whatever happened with that anyway?
baldheadeddork
@Elizabelle:
I don’t know, but it’s not that early relative to the start of the convention. The Republican National Convention begins two weeks from this Monday. It’s surprising Romney would make the announcement this weekend when it’s up against the closing of the Olympics, and the timing is bizarre (announcing it at midnight on a Friday, eight hours before the event?!?) but if the announcement was rushed it was just by a few days.
baldheadeddork
@Spaghetti Lee:
They came up short. They had to win the Nebraska state convention in July to be able to enter Paul’s name in nomination at the convention and they couldn’t pull it off.
Romney will be the only name in nomination on the first ballot and he has the votes to win. That’s a done deal.
Villago Delenda Est
The nomination of Ryan as VP nominee, should it happen, will be a crowning achievement of FAIL beyond the wildest dreams of the Obama staff.
Good lord, it will be a fish-in-the-barrel shooting orgy.
And Rmoney is just clueless enough to do it, too.
Elizabelle
Thanks for info on GOP rules.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Perhaps the evil fucksticks of the GOP finally realized Paul Ryan’s plan to fuck over old people was actually not good for their party. They know Mitt is screwed so they would like to jettison Ryan and his plan as well. I don’t get the idea of setting Ryan up for 2016. I am already looking forward to the ads if Ryan is the VP pick. Let the head exploding commence.
Kane
What a conundrum. Do elderly white people dislike Obama more than they love their Medicare?
Hal
Christ on crutches, Romney is desperate. Announcing his VP pick 3 weeks ahead of the convention, at the end of a week where you plunge in the polls, and get ripped a new one by Man Coulter?
Romney is the biggest puss in Presidential history. Also, I’m getting an enormous amount of entertainment from concern troll posts that start like “Careful what you wish for!” or alternatively; “Paul Ryan is a great choice. First of all, he very good looking…” which we all know is just a guarantee of a good pick for VP.
Oh, and I’m shocked Coulter’s law degree is from University of Michigan. I assumed she was an alumni of Liberty U’s esteemed school of law.
Mark S.
@baldheadeddork:
I don’t think anyone cornered McCain into picking Palin. The only thing I remember reading is that McCain’s first choice of Holy Joe was torpedoed, mainly because Joe is pro-choice. McCain picked Palin because he read about a paragraph about her and thought she was mavericky. He could have easily picked someone else.
Mitt, on the other hand, probably felt he had to pick someone to please the moronic teabaggers. But picking someone who is on record for disemboweling Medicare so assholes like Mitt can pay even lower taxes is just pure stupidity.
Spaghetti Lee
Does this mean Ryan resigns from his seat in congress?
Citizen_X
@MDC: Vulture/Voucher 2012.
(Thank someone at Wonkette for that.)
PeakVT
Admittedly, I’m +mumblemumble and short on sleep, but it seems to me that Romney is about to hand the Democrats a hammer that makes Nancy SMASH’s fine implement look like a toothpick. Amirong?
Calouste
@Elizabelle:
8:45 EST on a Saturday morning? Probably. Usually these things are officially announced at a time when less than half the country is still asleep.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Spaghetti Lee: Heh, good question. If he doesn’t, and runs for re-election while being the VP pick, it opens up “Why are you hedging your bets?” questions.
Villago Delenda Est
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
It all depends on how Wisconsin’s election laws are written. I know there is precedent in Texas and Connecticut for someone to run for a Senate seat and simultaneously be on the ballot for Vice President, but I don’t know of a situation where a member of the House was able to do so.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mark S.:
Bill Kristol recommended her.
The lesson here: never follow Bill Kristol’s advice, on anything at all.
Citizen Alan
@Hal:
You flatter the venerable Ms. Coulter. Coulter, who will be 51 this December, received her law degree nearly twenty years before Liberty’s law school opened its doors.
Cathie from Canada
I think the alliteration (“Romney/Ryan”) and the visuals of two good looking white guys has blinded them.
Romney will get a bounce out of this, and their coverage will be more positive for the next few weeks because the press corps thinks Ryan is soooo smart.
But as long as the Democrats don’t panic, Ryan will turn out to be just as bad for the ticket as Palin was.
amk
Did anyone venture into wingnutopia to gauge their reaction to the blue eyed boy? Dougj?
Thoroughly Pizzled
Twenty-seven percent said they viewed the Wisconsin congressman favorably.
Karmus
@Kane:
LMAO. Don’t go spending the internets you just won all in one place, now.
MikeBoyScout
When you are on the job Monday morning, what will people be talking about?
a) The world record gold medal in the women’s 4×100
b) The Closing Ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games
c) The Gold Medal Soccer match between Brazil and Mexico
d) How NBC f*cked up the coverage of the Soccer match and the Closing Ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games
e) The sudden saturation of the Munsters remake on all the TV channels
Elizabelle
@Citizen_X:
Vulture/Voucher 2012. Too perfect.
I am just stunned by the Ryan pick. And don’t see how Romney gets that much of a bounce from it.
MikeBoyScout
@35 amk:
Erik son of Erik Erikson is highly enthused!
amk
@Elizabelle: Tweeted that.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
I hope this is true, and that Team Outsource and Starve (for America!) is crushed so mightily, so thoroughly, that it’s broadcast for all the country to see. Especially the assclowns on television that are supposed to be smart about this shit. Fuck, I might have to give in and start watching some cable tv again the next few months if the Granny Starver gets disemboweled with Bidenisms over and over again. The cognitive dissonance on the faces of the assholes at CNN and NBC and everywhere else, as their fucking Howard God damn Roark is turned into a running joke amongst everyone EXCEPT THEM (and lifetime members of the Objectivist Fapping Society) could prove to be some of the best entertainment I’ve seen since Colbert mooned W and the entire press corps on their own dais.
MikeBoyScout
@35 amk:
David Frum tweets:
Elizabelle
I’m thinking this is one of those long sleepless nights in the White House for President Obama.
Because he’s laughing too hard.
CaliCat
Robme/Lyin’ 2012!
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Elizabelle: Now I have visions of the “Chill the fuck out, I got this!” pic (recently spoofed with Willard as “Please lower your temperature, I will acquire this”) with Ryan instead, in his best salesman face: “I have a voucher for that!”
Mark S.
@MikeBoyScout:
That’s the damn truth. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Balloon Juice this happy. It’s like if Tunch just won the lottery.
Elizabelle
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
That’s funny.
Such a preposterous choice. I’m wondering if NBC got punked, but CNN says it has three GOP sources too.
Chris T.
You mean “tenterhooks”, not “tender hooks”. (A tenter is a frame on which cloth is stretched.)
Mark S.
@Elizabelle:
Obama’s 3am call . . .
Biden shrieking with laughter.
Martin
Obama invited Ryan to his speech so that he could look in his face while he twisted the knife.
That’s the entirety of Ryan’s contribution to this world – his budget plan that Obama eagerly shredded while gazing down upon its author. Not only does Obama have a plan to counter Ryan, he’s already done it – and hard. This is going to be like watching Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner all over again.
Elizabelle
@Mark S.:
You know it.
karen marie
@Hal: Romney’s got to be hoping that everyone is going to be so busy ripping Ryan a new one they forget about his taxes.
Bnut
White House response.
Mark S.
Jon Chait:
Well, duh. Way to keep up with the group, Jon.
Really? You don’t think Reid heard it from an imaginary friend?
I have no doubt that some guy told Reid this. Whether this guy actually knows or is going off third-hand rumors is what the question is.
CaliCat
@Bnut: LOL nice!
Yutsano
@Bnut: Are Obama’s hands his white half in that graphic? :)
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Martin: I think Colbert is going to be getting invoked a lot if this turns out to be the choice. The spectacle is just too delicious. Ryan can’t get his panties in a bunch about getting hammered on ideology, because his ideology IS HIS POLITICAL IDENTITY. That’s why the wingnut Rand-tards love him. It’s just as hilarious as Romney crying about being attacked for his work at Bain. That’s what the man is running for the Presidency on. So, that’s what his opposition will attack. I always thought Republicans were supposed to be the “life sucks, get a helmet” party. But when it suddenly applies to them, then unfairness matters? It’s just precious.
karen marie
I can’t find any links but there were reports recently that when the Ryan plan was described to voters, they refused to believe the description was accurate. I guess Romney’s betting his campaign can prevent the public discovering it really is that bad.
Bnut
@Yutsano: I think orange-mocha frappachinos may have melanin dampening qualities.
Elizabelle
@Martin:
Link for Martin’s article. It’s Ryan Lizza in The New Yorker on Ryan: “Fussbudget.”
Joseph Nobles
Romney announcement speech leaked!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104348/quotes
Key quote:
Amir Khalid
I remember when Cheney endorsed McCain in 2008, almost at the end of the campaign. (By then, I think, American people hated Cheney even more than they did Bush.) McCain’s response was an embarrassed silence, while it was Obama’s people who gleefully trumpeted the endorsement — pretty much what I’m seeing here now. I gather the numbers on Ryan’s nationwide popularity are not good.
Yutsano
@Bnut: I have an Ethiopian friend I may try you theories out on.
Martin
@Elizabelle: Ah, thank you. I’m usually better about that sort of thing.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
Ok I’m reading the Lizza article and this paragraph killed me:
It’s amazing what giving access will get you in exchange.
droog
I think someone expects R&R to split and blame each other after they lose the election, á la McCain and Palin. I see no other reason for this to be happening in 2013.
amk
wapo tells how mittbot was a govnor.
Calouste
@MikeBoyScout:
I watched the online highlights of the Great Britain-Netherlands men’s hockey semi final. The Netherlands won a historic 9-2 victory. NBC showed two missed British attempts at goal and the first British goals, before they showed the first action for the Dutch, which turned out to be their fifth goal. They didn’t show any of the first four goals.
amk
Linky
Anne Laurie
@Chris T.:
You know the difference, I know the difference, but a voting plurality does NOT know the difference. Thus, the (/snark) tag.
Elizabelle
@Martin:
Looked like some good stuff, and hadn’t seen it before.
I am just waiting to hear Romney’s chosen someone other than Ryan later this morning. This is just too surreal to be the choice.
karen marie
Recent #s for Ryan in Wisconsin. Scroll down for survey results.
CaliCat
I know Sarah Palin, Paul Ryan, and YOU’RE NO SARAH PALIN!
bemused
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
Hilarious. Looking at the Republicans in Congress today, a serious deficit in social skills is required to get the rightwing vote.
Kane
The long voting record of Ryan:
http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/26344/
Voted for the Iraq war, TARP, Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, Economic Stimulus (2008), additional anti-recession stimulus spending (2009), and the bailout for GM and Chrysler. How does the tea party square his voting record with his rhetoric?
JoyceH
So, do I have this right? The guy who wants to privatize Social Security has joined up with the guy who made millions looting private pension plans?
Well, their domestic policy argument will certainly be simple – it can be boiled down to two words.
Soylent Green.
karen
@Mark S.:
They were more concerned that Lieberman wasn’t Christian and you know, Evangelicals that control the GOP only like dead Jews because that brings on the end of days and there was no bloody way McCain would be ALLOWED to have a Jewish Democrat as a running mate.
karen
@Kane:
He’s not Romney and he worships Ayn Rand. What more do they need?
If I were Romney, I’d be careful about what I eat and drink at the convention….
With Ryan as the VP pick, what it really says is that Romney will be the PINO.
President in Name Only.
Elizabelle
In honor of the rumored VP pick:
Professor Paul Krugman, from 2010: “The Flimflam Man”:
Krugman then outlines Ryan’s budgeteering, how his cost savings will not materialize and reduce the deficit, and how his budget cuts middle class benefits and slashes taxes for the already wealthy.
Roadmap to the future, right.
ponce
Ryan’s only private sector job was driving the Weinermobile.
I hope that isn’t a problem for him and Mittens.
arguingwithsignposts
@Kane:
You give the tea party assholes way too much credit for cognitive skills than they have proven themselves to possess.
raven
This is like the Colts leaving Baltimore in the middle of the night.
Mino
I just hope that Obama has defined Mittens well enough that voters now will believe what the Republicans have planned if elected. And will have every chance of being enacted if they win.
AxelFoley
What? That douchebag is gonna be in my neck of the woods today?
Dennis SGMM
@karen:
Romney would be PINO no matter whom he picked as his VP. He wants to be The President, not do the work that might entail. If his Veep didn’t run him then someone else would.
JGabriel
Paul Ryan (via Charles Pierce):
Like how George Bush let bin Laden get away, until a Democratic president caught him?
Or like how Mitt Romney avoided the Viet Nam draft by going to France?
Or like how both Romney and you want to return to the same deregulatory policies of Reagan/Bush/Bush II that destroyed the economy in the first place, rather than confront the challenge of reining in the run-amok capitalist robber-barons of our financial system?
If the phrase “robber-barons” looks a little 1890s, that’s probably because our financial system does too.
.
kd bart
You just know that the Obama campaign in Chicago already has the ads cut and ready to run in reaction to this choice.
raven
38% never hoid of da bum.
AxelFoley
@Kane:
What you did there, I see it.
AxelFoley
@Spaghetti Lee:
Thank you. I never understood that argument either. If the GOP gets rid of their assumed candidate at their own convention, that would make them look even more disorganized that they are now. And with less than 3 months to go?
raven
@AxelFoley: Wary of what? Like there is something “Democrats” can do about it.
JGabriel
__
__
I’m honestly surprised that Romney would go with Ryan as his VP pick. According to Nate Silver — who has the numbers — Ryan doesn’t significantly help Romney win the electoral vote, or even Ryan’s home state.
I thought for sure it would be Portman, McDonnell, or Sandoval.
This is gonna be another disastrous VP pick for the GOP.
I’ll try to contain my schadenfreudy glee. Or not.
.
mai naem
I should have known it was going to be Ryan this morning. I was watching Morning Ho and they were giving Ryan a full throated BJ. I’ll guarantee you Monica never gave Bill Clinton this good a BJ.
I still am not going to believe this until I actually hear the announcement. I don’t get the timing or the choice. Ryan’s very thin skinned. Biden’s going to turn him into mush by the time he’s done mocking him.
bob h
The political equivalent of slashing your wrists.
AxelFoley
Argh, block quote fail on my end. Edited:
@Spaghetti Lee:
Thank you. I never understood that argument either. If the GOP gets rid of their assumed candidate at their own convention, that would make them look even more disorganized that they are now. And with less than 3 months to go?
JGabriel
I’m also surprised that Romney is announcing the pick now. I really didn’t expect him to announce it for another week or two. There really isn’t any reason to rush it out that I can see.
Obama waited until three days before the 2008 convention to announce Biden, which was a smart move to build up interest in the convention itself. By the time the GOP convention rolls around, the Romney VP pick will be old news.
.
AxelFoley
@PeakVT:
No, Urrite.
slightly_peeved
@Mino:
I’ve heard a theory (it was a post on here a couple of weeks ago, I think) that the whole purpose of Obama’s defining of Mitt as a unfeeling vulture capitalist and conman was that when they then tie him to Paul Ryan’s budget, people will actually believe Mitt could implement it.
Nice of Mitt to help them out with that.
TooManyJens
@Elizabelle:
That is beautiful, ma’am.
Posting from sockalist France, where it is 1pm and we are about to go see some of the beaches in Normandy, but I had to come read what the BJ crowd thought about this news. :)
TooManyJens
Damn sockalist double posting. ::grumble::
Dennis SGMM
@AxelFoley:
James A. Garfield is the only sitting member of the House to be elected President. He is one of only three sitting members of the House to even run for the office. Ryan would be the least likely usurper.
If anyone was to steal the nomination from Romney my money would be on Jeb Bush. Wha? Yes, Jeb Bush. The Bush name is toxic to us, but I would posit that it’s far less toxic to many LIVs whose attention span was so short that W was re-elected. A “return to prosperity” campaign could make it tough for Obama even though it would be pure bullshit. As for the machinery, all that takes is money and the Bush’s have access to plenty of that. The prospect of an electable candidate would likely cause the Super PACs to drop Romney like a hot rock.
Winning is all the Rs care about and if it looks like Romney has no chance of doing so then the nomination will be up for grabs. The GOP has already demonstrated that rules are what they say they are as of this second.
AnnieJo
@karen marie: Here ya go…
By picking Ryan as VP, Romney is throwing himself an anvil. Thanks to the surprisingly hard-hitting efforts of the Obama team so far, I think enough of the public may now be ready to believe the truth on this.
WereBear
I accompanied some friends to our local Social Security office this week, and there on the wall was our President, looking caring and resolute, and our Vice President, grinning like the happiest guy in the world.
I don’t believe anyone has ever enjoyed the Veep post as much as Joe Biden does.
But I imagine he would grin even wider if he gets a chance to mince up that twerp Ryan.
Kathleen
ABC is swooning as we speak. George Stuffypompousmuch is lauding Ryan’s “intellectual heft”, his great chemistry with Romney, the boldness of Romney’s choice (it’s Romney’s personal statement), blah blah blah. Oh, and George also referenced the fact that Romney has had a fairly rocky summer. Then he lit a cigarette. Dear God.
Bobby Thomson
@Martin:
Truth hurts, mother fucker.
AxelFoley
@JoyceH:
Because like corporations, Soylet Green is people.
kansi
Over at the American Spectator, they are saying that Ryan “strikes fear in the heart of Obama” and may force Obama to replace Joe Biden with Hillary, because the Granny Starver will wipe the floor with Biden in their debate.
Are they always this delusional?
InternetDragons
This choice of Ryan is so surreal that I keep thinking maybe I missed some brilliant strategy that’s designed to unravel the Obama campaign.
I cannot, no matter how hard I try, wrap my mind around how or why they think this is a good VP pick. Are the teatards really so influential that they can force this sort of kabuki on the Romney campaign, or is he just that clueless, or ? Sheesh.
Triassic Sands
I heard a bit of the Diane Rehm show last night (the show aired live Friday morning in D.C.) and one of her typical guests, just another purveyor of that oh-so-familiar inside the Beltway conventional wisdom, “reported” that the “smart money” said the announcement would be next week or even the week after. Oops! You can’t go wrong listening the MSM.
Elizabelle
@TooManyJens:
I was just repeating the “Vulture/Voucher” slogan — which is genius.
Attribution goes to someone at Wonkette; saw credit to Cool Hand Nuke.
It’s memorable and true, though, innit?
kchiker
Am I the only liberal that is slightly spooked by this pick? If a focus group refuses to believe the details of the Ryan plan…I’m worried that grandma will look into those doe-eyes and think that such a nice boy would never do something like…what he’s promised to do.
This is the only pick that will bring the media back to full-on Republican worship.
Spike
@Citizen_X: There’s a gentleman representing the Buzzard Anti-Defamation League on line 1 who wishes to speak with you.
karen marie
@JGabriel: Fecking taxes — Rmoney had to do something to shut down the voices in his head.
bubba
@transientseeker: @transientseeker: I thought it odd that a draft dodger like romney would announce his choice on the USS Wisconsin…guess now he can claim military experience