Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot shame the shameless.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

No one could have predicted…

The revolution will be supervised.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

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Money shot

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For the most part, the serious centrist (Miller; Marcus) crowd hasn’t been administering the Ryan tongue-bath that I expected, but this Will Saletan piece is NSFW:

Ryan is a real fiscal conservative. He isn’t just another Tea-Party ideologue spouting dogma about less government and the magic of free enterprise. He has actually crunched the numbers and laid out long-term budget proposals. My liberal friends point out that Ryan’s plan leaves many details unclear. That’s true. But show me another Republican who has addressed the nation’s fiscal problems as candidly and precisely as Ryan has. He’s got the least detailed budget proposal out there, except for all the others.

Ryan refutes the Democratic Party’s bogus arguments. He knows that our domestic spending trajectory is unsustainable and that liberals who fail to get it under control are leading their constituents over a cliff, just like in Europe. Eventually, you can’t borrow enough money to make good on your promises, and everyone’s screwed. Ryan understands that the longer we ignore the debt crisis and postpone serious budget cuts—the liberal equivalent of denying global warming—the more painful the reckoning will be. There’s nothing compassionate about that kind of irresponsibility.

Update. I’ve calmed down a bit so I’ll start. Why does it matter that he’s “crunched the numbers” if his plan “leaves many details unclear”? How do we even know that he’s crunched the numbers” if his plan “leaves many details unclear”?

Update. I didn’t know this: the managing editor of Slate is a hard-core wingnut.

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  1. 1.

    Davis X. Machina

    Simple, easy to explain, and wrong.

    In a majoritarian system, that’s dynamite. [1]

    [1] for all meanings of ‘dynamite’…

  2. 2.

    Baud

    My liberal friends point out that Ryan’s plan leaves many details unclear. That’s true. But show me another Republican who has addressed the nation’s fiscal problems as candidly and precisely as Ryan has.

    Grading on a curve, I see.

    Ryan understands that the longer we ignore the debt crisis and postpone serious budget cuts—the liberal equivalent of denying global warming—the more painful the reckoning will be.

    And that’s why Ryan opposes the GOP’s attempt to undo the sequestration they agreed to. Right?

    Right?

  4. 4.

    Spaghetti Lee

    He isn’t just another Tea-Party ideologue spouting dogma about less government and the magic of free enterprise.

    Got that right. He’s worse!

  5. 5.

    delosgatos

    It’s precise, while leaving many details unclear?

    Umm…

    And to 0 significant digits, 1=2.

  6. 6.

    delosgatos

    It’s precise, while leaving many details unclear?

    Umm…

    And to 0 significant digits, 1=2.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    oh my god. This is the pundit equivalent of the doughy aging frat rat (think Fat Mac, if you watch Always Sunny) picking a bar fight with the body builder who was just minding his own business. Krugman is gonna lay him out flat, if reading it doesn’t give him a stroke.

  8. 8.

    Anoniminous

    For decades we’ve heard Conservatives and their toadies squeal lower taxes would create economic activity.

    Instead we’ve got “unsustainable deficits” during decades of high corporate profits.

    Answer: tax the sons-of-bitches.

  9. 9.

    schrodinger's cat

    I love how the conservatives like to tag all of Europe with one label. Europe is not a country, and the economic situation in the Scandinavian countries is far different from
    say Greece and Italy. Why are our Punditubbies so illiterate.

    ETA: Also, our situation is not like Greece, because we control our monetary policy.

  11. 11.

    quannlace

    When will these ‘deep-thinkers’ get it, that just because somebody has an idea, doesn’t mean it’s a GOOD idea.
    ******
    cuts—the liberal equivalent of denying global warming

    And the conservative equivalent is that we can balance the budget by more tax cuts with no new revenue.

  12. 12.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    and yet everyone chance Ryan had to put his money were is mouth is he baulked. Yet another wingtard whose idea of shared sacrifice is for everyone else but him to do with less.

  13. 13.

    MattF

    The front page of Slate is nausea-inducing. “We’re so contrarian. All together now.” I don’t think I’m the only person who perceives a contradiction there, but what do I know? I’m just sittin’ here in my bunny slippers.

  14. 14.

    Yutsano

    @Baud: Yesbut you see it wasn’t the RIGHT type of budget cuts. It hurts teh troops (read: DoD contractors to lard up their districts) and doesn’t punish poors and browns for being poors and browns. So therefore it totes doesn’t count in wingnut lore.

  15. 15.

    Linda Featheringill

    I got my chuckle of the day when I read that Romney said he wasn’t going to run on the Ryan budget.

    [hee-hee]

  21. 21.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I’ve calmed down a bit so I’ll start. Why does it matter that he’s “crunched the numbers” if his plan “leaves many details unclear”? How do we even know that he’s crunched the numbers” if his plan “leaves many details unclear”?

    Because of Greece and you’re a thug for asking that, that’s why.

  22. 22.

    Davis X. Machina

    @MattF: My mildly antinomian daughter was taken aside by the other soi-disant gamma girls in her 7th grade and told that she was being non-conformist the wrong way.

    Slate is like that.

  23. 23.

    quannlace

    ll be fun watching the Rmoney campaign feel the lift of the announcement,

    And CNN spending the next two days trying to find how many ways they can say ‘Satisfies the base.’

  24. 24.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Romney released this. This is what the Romneys want us to know about Paul Ryan. This is the Romney defense of Ryan’s lack of ‘private sector’ experience as the running mate of the man who once proposed a Constitutional amendment requiring the president to have three years of “private sector” experience:

    The Romney campaign has released some facts on the private sector jobs Ryan has held: “Ryan moonlighted on Capitol Hill as a waiter at the Tortilla Coast restaurant & as a fitness trainer at Washington Sport and Health Club. …One of Ryan’s summer jobs in college was as an Oscar Mayer salesman in Minnesota, peddling turkey bacon and a new line called ‘Lunchables’ to supermarkets – he even drove the ‘Wienermobile’ once.”

    I wonder why they don’t want to talk about Ryan’s six months as a marketing executive with the family construction company (which depends on government contracts) for which he earned a grand total of IIRC $1,800?

  25. 25.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    I’m surprised no one has used the headline I thought was most obvious upon Romney selecting Ryan as his VP candidate:

    OBAMA WINS!

    .

  27. 27.

    Violet

    Nice MSNBC First Read piece on how Obama’s been running against Ryan for awhile now.

    And this bit is fun:

    There are already indications the Romney campaign may try to give the candidate some wiggle room on the Ryan budget. According to Romney campaign talking points reported by CNN, Romney “will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.”
    __
    But it is going to be very difficult for Romney to try and separate himself from Ryan’s plan with Ryan on the ticket.
    __
    The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol and Stephen Hayes, the same authors who pushed for the Ryan pick, wrote before the selection that Romney had given “a clear and unequivocal defense of Ryan’s entitlement reforms. No hedging, no qualification.” And: “Romney has praised Ryan’s budget without qualification.” And they called the Ryan budget “in a sense, the official Republican governing roadmap.”
    __
    Picking Ryan will be seen as a full embrace of the Ryan plan. If it’s not, economic conservatives would likely pounce.

    Yes, yes, embrace the Ryan plan or wingnuts go apeshit. Excellent.

  29. 29.

    Ben Franklin

    This. Another abdication to the Tea Party.

    I hope this campaign is their fucking epitaph.

  30. 30.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Martin: Well I would say that Europe saved itself albeit with American help. WWII would have been lost without the contributions of Great Britain and
    the former Soviet Union.

    ETA: I know you were channeling Greater Wingnuttia in your answer.

  33. 33.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @Martin:

    Europe is weak. We had to save them.

    Ha ha, the Ukraine. Do you know what the Ukraine is? It’s a sitting duck. A road apple, Newman. The Ukraine is weak. It’s feeble. I think it’s time to put the hurt on the Ukraine.

  34. 34.

    MikeJ

    @quannlace:

    And CNN spending the next two days trying to find how many ways they can say ‘Satisfies the base.’

    We should teach them the phrase “fan service”.

  35. 35.

    Egypt Steve

    When Bill Clinton left office, we were on a fiscally sustainable course. Now we are not. That is entirely the fault of the Republican Party. Paul Ryan was at the scene of many, many crimes. The ads write themselves. I hope.

  36. 36.

    quannlace

    he even drove the ‘Wienermobile’ once.”

    Isn’t the word ‘wiener’ of German origin? Hey, that could count as foreign policy experience!

  37. 37.

    Yutsano

    @Violet: And apparently he already threw Ryan under the bus. Beautiful. Tampa is gonna be a bloodbath.

    @quannlace: “Wiener” is technically Austrian. Not that I expect Paulie Boy to understand such subtleties.

  38. 38.

    Brian R.

    @Martin:

    Europe is weak. We had to save them. Obviously they and their ideas are all losers.

    Except for financial austerity. Republicans loved to say we should follow that example in 2010.

    I wonder how that turned out?

  39. 39.

    Boots Day

    The Ryan budget is the biggest debt reduction plan out there, except for all the others.

  40. 40.

    Anoniminous

    @Violet:

    Kristol’s political acumen can be easily tested.

    No wonder Bill Kristol has remained so positive about [Palin] while other neocons have fled. He helped push her to the veep ticket—and won out against Karl Rove.

    Just the guy I’d want picking my Vice-President nominee.

    (not)

  42. 42.

    Baud

    Update. I didn’t know this: the managing editor of Slate is a hard-core wingnut.

    Explains Greenwald.

  43. 43.

    Jay in Oregon

    @Baud:
    My thought was “Romney does have a good-looking ass, but refuses to campaign on his budget proposal.”

  45. 45.

    Skippy-san

    Look at the links to Rachel Larimore and you will see that she hates people who like to leave the building to have lunch. That should tell you everything you need to know about this heartless bitch.

  46. 46.

    Violet

    @DougJ: Yeah, I’ve only just come back to reading them. I quit somewhere in the 2008 campaign. Recently, though, they seem to be doing good work.

    This piece is good because it chronicles what the Obama campaign has been doing to promote Ryan from a nobody to the “architect of the GOP budget” and get conservatives to insist he be put on the ticket. I don’t know what dimensional chess this is, but it’s good stuff.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @DougJ:

    Just spotted this on First Read. Broke my heart.

    Confirming that he will not be traveling to Virginia tomorrow for Mitt Romney’s formal announcement of a running mate, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said late Friday night that he is “not disappointed” about not being on the GOP ticket.

    “I didn’t enter this thinking I was going to be the vice presidential candidate, so I’m not disappointed,” Pawlenty said of his advocacy for Romney since endorsing him last year. “And I’m excited about his candidacy, and I’m excited about having him be the next president.”
    …
    “I am keeping my schedule in New Hampshire tomorrow, won’t be at the announcement,” he told reporters outside a hotel here in Manchester. “So you can deduce from there that since I’m keeping my schedule in New Hampshire, I can’t also be in Virginia at the same time.”

    You can almost hear Sarah Mclachlan singing “Arms of an Angel” in the background.

  48. 48.

    Martin

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Well I would say that Europe saved itself albeit with American help. WWII would have been lost without the contributions of Great Britain and
    the former Soviet Union.

    No. In spite of FDRs best efforts to lose the war, Ike singlehandedly beat the Germans – and then turned his sights on the Soviets. The Brits and French couldn’t be bothered to stop surrendering and handing over nations.

    I did a simulation in my kid’s sandbox with a M26 Pershing tank that demonstrates unequivocally that Patton defeated the entire German army with nothing more than 3 tanks. And the Germans likely would have won the war had they not foolishly passed an assault weapons and extended clip ban and forbidden ammunition sales on the internet.

  49. 49.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    @Egypt Steve: “When Bill Clinton left office, we were on a fiscally sustainable course.”

    I used to believe that lie too.

    Then I read Griftopia, where all of Alan Greenspan’s fraud is laid out in concise terms.

    Clinton oversaw a massive leveraging of our GDP, and under his stewardship the middle-class was already buckling – although most of America was shielded from the effects for a time by the various bubbles. The bubbles that were continually inflated by Greenspan’s woefully irresponsible printing and pouring of money into Wall Street.

    We now have NAFTA, a bubble economy, the complete dismantling of wall street regulation, and the expectation of the bankers that no matter what they do we’ll bail them out (as we did throughout most of the 90’s too, BTW – “moral hazard” indeed).

    While this continued apace (and even accelerated under Bush Jr) we have Clinton (and repug congress of the time) to thank for his hand in the utter dismantling of the American Dream. There is plenty of blame to go around.

    And no, I’m no firebagger. Just honest.

  50. 50.

    liberal

    Why does it matter that he’s “crunched the numbers” if his plan “leaves many details unclear”?

    Because the Villagers need to believe that some of the leading lights of the GOP are intellectuals, damnit.

    Like the tea party guy in TX (Cruz).

    Goddamn, they’re geniuses. Just like George Will—he wears glasses and a bow tie, after all!!

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Bob R: Ho. Lee. Shit. I gave up on Slate a long time ago, as much because the site is such a fucking mess as because of the third-rate Kinsleyism, but this woman would be on right side of a Hannity panel.

    Rachael Larimore ‏@RachaelBL
    How much did it pain the NYT to run this article showing Mitt helping out a nice average family? http://nyti.ms/Qmxu3q
    Expand
    Reply Retweet Favorite
    Rachael Larimore ‏@RachaelBL
    Media struggles with concept of putting “Obama camp” and “caught lying” in the same headline http://politi.co/Ruo2yP

    She retweets Dana Fucking Loessh

  56. 56.

    Anya

    I don’t get the beltway media’s crush on the zombie-eyed granny-starver? Does he attend a lot of Georgetown cocktail parties? Does he delight the media with cute nicknames? He doesn’t even give the frat boy vibe, so what gives?

  57. 57.

    hep kitty

    This is “marvelous” news. It puts a spotlight on RRR’s (Ryan,Romney&republicans’) plan to destroy Medicare. Ryan is even more terrifying than Romney. I’m like Barney Frank, have I lived a good enough life for this?

  58. 58.

    xian

    @quannlace: worse, it’s plainly false that liberals and Democrats have remained in denial about longterm structural budget problems. In the 80s and then again under Clinton they took steps to shore up and pre-fund future entitlement liabilities and each time they were rewarded with the equivalent of a Nigerian email scam, busting out the accounts and showering the wealthy with the nation’s nest-egg built on the pennies of laborers.

    So, no, it isn’t the liberals who have failed to come to grips with the mathematics of a social welfare system.

  59. 59.

    MikeBoyScout

    Ok, let’s do the take down.

    Ryan refutes the Democratic Party’s bogus arguments. He knows that our domestic spending trajectory is unsustainable and that liberals who fail to get it under control are leading their constituents over a cliff, just like in Europe. Eventually, you can’t borrow enough money to make good on your promises, and everyone’s screwed. Ryan understands that the longer we ignore the debt crisis and postpone serious budget cuts—the liberal equivalent of denying global warming—the more painful the reckoning will be. There’s nothing compassionate about that kind of irresponsibility.

    When exactly did House Republican, Paul Ryan know that deficit spending was unsustainable? Was it when he voted for the 2002 Bush deficit budget? 2003? 2004? 2005? …?
    Was the budget deficit under control before all the Bush deficit spending proposals House Republican, Paul Ryan voted for?
    How did the tax cuts and less regulation House Republican, Paul Ryan voted for during the Bush administration impact the budget deficit?
    “just like Europe”…Which European countries are in a double-dip recession and which are not?

    F*ck these idiots!
    House Republican Paul Ryan has never accomplished anything in his 14 year career as a legislator, and never gave a shit about the deficit and never will.

  60. 60.

    Rhoda

    LMAO, this is how Ryan is playing in FL. The Miami Herald:

    Bottom line: Seniors would have to pay more out of pocket in the future than they’re paying now. Services could be cut. Right now, about 3.4 million are on Medicare in Florida, which receives about $25.2 billion from the program. Ryan and Romney also want to cap expenditures for Medicaid, a massive $21.4 billion state-federal program in Florida that accounts for a quarter of the state’s budget and has grown in the bad economy. About 3.3 million Floridians receive Medicaid.
    __
    Ryan and the plan’s defenders point out that nothing’s free. Someone’s always paying something out of pocket for Medicare or any other government program. On its current path, Medicare isn’t sustainable. And more and more seniors are buying supplemental insurance to cover Medicare expenses now, making the system appear more voucher-like over time. Ryan said he’s trying to save, not end, Medicare.

    This is DAY ONE, lol, the best it’s going to be and that is the news analysis in FL. (h/t to Daily Kos were I first saw this.)

  62. 62.

    hep kitty

    @Anya: I think the “Granny Starver” label is going to haunt Ryan, because he and his budget plan have been shoved squarely into the spotlight now. People are going to want to know what that means, esp. the grannies.

  63. 63.

    Corner Stone

    @Baud:

    Update. I didn’t know this: the managing editor of Slate is a hard-core wingnut.
    __
    Explains Greenwald.

    Ummm…how?

  66. 66.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Anoniminous:
    IIRC, Kristol was absolutely drooling over Palin. Romney’s taking Wrong Way Bill’s advice really does suggest that he has some disorder that affects his judgement.

  67. 67.

    Tehanu

    My liberal friends point out that Ryan’s plan leaves many details unclear.

    No, if Saletan actually HAD any liberal friends, they would be pointing out that Ryan’s plan is a barefaced attempt to turn the US into a Third World country run by and for the benefit of shameless greedheads (Sheldon Adelson, anyone?). I feel sure that these “liberal friends” are the same taxi drivers and bus riders that the Mustache of Understanding and McMeMeMegan are always quoting inventing.

  68. 68.

    Corner Stone

    @Violet:

    Yes, yes, embrace the Ryan plan or wingnuts go apeshit. Excellent.

    I remember distinctly when Obama just flayed the Ryan Plan and commented at the time,
    “Great speech. I tend to enjoy all Obama’s speeches. He surprised me with the repeated, yet understated eviscerating of the Ryan Plan. You could tell he wanted to say, “Come the fuck on! Really?” at a couple points.”
    After the G-dub speech

  70. 70.

    Jennifer

    Now that I’ve finished vomiting…

    I can only take so much of this “serious” Paul Ryan budget bullshit. You know why? I live on a fucking budget, that’s why. And here’s what I DON’T do, when my debt is too high, as it currently is: I don’t look for ways to lower my income. I do the opposite. I currently have 2 jobs and I’m about to have 3, as I switch to one that pays quite a bit more and transition out of one of the other ones. If I was following the Paul Ryan “blueprint” or “roadmap” or whatever it is that “serious” thinkers are calling it, I not only wouldn’t be transitioning into a job that pays more, I would quit one of the two I currently have – the one that pays the most. After all, that debt will be paid off in 50 years.

    These shitheads have been running around screeching about how the sky is falling because of the debt THEY created. It would be one thing if they said “sorry old people, you’re going to have to eat cat food, live in a refrigerator box, and only consume as much health care as this lousy voucher will provide; sorry young people, you’re going to spend your entire working lives saddled by huge debt from getting an education; sorry you suckers who were ALMOST old enough not to get fucked out of your social security and medicare – we’ve got a huge debt to pay off, and it’s going to require sacrifice from all of us.” That would suck.

    But that’s not what they’re saying. They’re saying “fuck all of youse guys – you’re going to give all this up because we have this big debt, and it’s a huge problem, so huge that too bad, so sad, but all that shit you’ve been paying for with payroll deductions your entire goddamn working lives? It’s all going to go away, because like we said, this debt is a big problem. But it’s not such a huge problem that we can’t cut taxes more on the rich fuckers who are the reason we have the debt in the first place, because they don’t like paying taxes. So suck it up, whiners, and learn to know your place. Which is the glue factory, once the rich fuckers have squeezed every cent of profit they can get out of you.”

    Fuck these fucking motherfuckers.

  71. 71.

    liberal

    Campaign analysis: my dad, who thinks Obama is way too far to the right on policy (and would be deemed a firebagger) in these parts, says that the Obama campaign has been “vicious” towards Romney.

    NB: He means that as a compliment.

  73. 73.

    liberal

    @Violet:
    I can’t imagine he could actively distance himself from the Ryan plan. IMHO the only redeeming thing about picking Ryan is that it might shore himself up with the base a bit.

    (At a more general level, ISTM that Ryan is a Palin-esque pick: probably will hurt the Romney campaign, but it might increase the “variance”. I.e. a hail mary.)

  76. 76.

    xian

    @Violet:

    And they called the Ryan budget “in a sense, the official Republican governing roadmap.”

    Jesus Christ! Is Bill “Cheshire Cat” Kristol actually a deep-cover liberal?

  77. 77.

    xian

    @Brian R.: Ryan is innumerate person’s idea of a data-driven technocrat. No, wait. He’s a math-phobic person’s idea of a number-cruncher. Hmm, I could do better. To media hacks and republicans, numbers are just a form of branding (see also “fuzzy math”).

  78. 78.

    Corner Stone

    @liberal: IMO, it’s a big smelly sign of desperation. They know they are in trouble from pretty much every direction as the economy hasn’t visibly worsened to the degree they wanted/hoped. Not to say the economy is good, but that they were hoping for 20K person shanty towns in Town Squares across the nation.
    For those who weren’t going to vote for Romney anyway (a very tiny R percentage), I doubt Ryan gives them the sustained oomph they would need to show up at the polls.
    I’ve had long discussions with the other Democrat in my Congressional District (that’s me looking into my mirror), and we agree that Ryan as VP makes us wet ourselves with gleeful anticipation.
    The mindless swing voter demo? Meh, they were probably going to vote for Romney anyway as they are fickle bitches.

  80. 80.

    dance around in your bones

    I’ve been watching Up w/Chris Hayes (on DVR) and have noticed the shot of the podium that Mittser’s gonna walk out to has the (apparently) only two black people in the incredibly diverse crowd placed prominently just behind where he will be.

    Just sayin’

  82. 82.

    Anoniminous

    @Dennis SGMM:

    Kristol was the one who discovered and then pushed Palin to McCain.

    Some of them, such as Bill Kristol, later urged McCain to pick Palin as his vice presidential running mate, arguing that her presence on the ticket would provide a boost in enthusiasm among the Religious Right wing of the Republican party, while her status as an unknown on the national scene would also be a positive factor.

    IOW, the same line of bullshit they’re peddling now.

  83. 83.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Anya: They have entirely embraced the idea that the American social welfare system is too generous, and they see it as cynical pandering when Democrats oppose cuts to “entitlements” (because that’s just Democrats giving freebies to people as an incentive to voting for Democrats). They like the tough-love approach to the needy. IMHO that’s the real set of circumstances where “seriousness” and “hippie-punching” get rewarded.

    And, on top of that, they always love Republicans who aren’t Bible-thumpers.

  85. 85.

    Martin

    The great thing about the Olympics is that the global reach of the games ensures that they can fill half an arena with people interested in rhythmic gymnastics.

  88. 88.

    wiscomom

    Romney is polling at 39% in the latest CSMonitor poll out today. A 1 point Obama lead in July poll became a 7 point lead. 39% is beyond awful for less than 90 days out from election day.

  89. 89.

    chopper

    @liberal:

    tell him he aint seen nothin’ yet.

    obama’s been trying to tie romney to the ryan budget for months. this is such an own goal for mittens.

  94. 94.

    FlipYrWhig

    @liberal: In addition, I think Republican strategists look to the Wisconsin elections as a model, whereby the motley crew of liberals stood up, got enthused, and then got spanked by big money and flinty-eyed austerity rhetoric. They want to run Romney that way now.

    BTW, I’m getting sick of Republican ads that say that cutting debt creates jobs. That makes so little sense it’s stupefying. I don’t get how anyone can even pretend to believe it.

  95. 95.

    kerFuFFler

    Ryan understands that the longer we ignore the debt crisis and postpone serious budget cuts—the liberal equivalent of denying global warming—the more painful the reckoning will be.

    So then why have a plan that POSTPONES doing anything about Medicare for ten years? So that it is so far past being fixable that nuking it is the only solution?

    Seriously, if he were actually trying to save Medicare he would recommend MINOR changes that implemented now could over TEN YEARS help preserve the system as a whole. But no, he would rather pander to the current beneficiaries who already got theirs and don’t care about people ten years or more younger than themselves——“whippersnappers”.

  96. 96.

    jefft452

    @Anoniminous: “Instead we’ve got “unsustainable deficits” during decades of high corporate profits.

    Answer: tax the sons-of-bitches”

    But if we taxed the job creators, the economy would be horrible, like was it was in the 50’s and 60’s

    come to think of it, tax ’em till thier eyes bleed

  97. 97.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    While I encourage every American with a pulse to get out and vote,

    privately, I think this election is over. The rest is just a mop up.

    I’m holding out to see what happens to the downticket races though.

  98. 98.

    FlipYrWhig

    @mamayaga: True, but that’s a relatively recent development IMHO, and happened after Ryan already had an aura of Serious Republican Wonk And Handsome Too.

  99. 99.

    Turgidson

    Wow. So (pardon the political incorrectness, but this fits) Saletan think Ryan is a genius because he’s the smartest kid in special ed? Is that really his argument?

    Democratic party’s bogus arguments? You mean the ones that demonstrate, with numbers, that some modest tax increases on the rich, implementing the ACA, and raising the SS cap a little bit basically takes care of the deficit as long as a certain treasonous minority party stops sabotaging the economy? Those arguments? Yeah, Ryan’s arithmetic-challenged plan to force seniors to choose between health care and food is a fantastic refutation. Jackass.

    Jesus. I need to bathe after reading that. The first week or two of Ryanapalooza will be difficult to stomach, but I have every faith in the Obama campaign to make him less popular than pneumonia by November.

  102. 102.

    Bobby Thomson

    Will Saletan is a hard core racist and an idiot. The only appropriate response to him at any time is to point and laugh.

  103. 103.

    xian

    @liberal: also, too, Obama ran as a centrist in ’08, governed like one, and took the hits for that from all sides. notice that he is running a little more to the left this time, at least in the sense that he is saying there are two paths and here’s how they are opposed to each other. if reelected, his mandate will be to the left of his ’08 mandate and I think he’ll govern accordingly. Progress, a step at a time.

  104. 104.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    @xian: I do too. He has nothing to lose, for starters. And by tacking left he arguably does the Democrats a service by outlining a clear distinction between D and R in a nation awash in “Both Sides Do It” mendacity.

  106. 106.

    Jennifer

    @FlipYrWhig: I’m actually writing a book about economic myths (lies) right now. I guess that’s my 4th “job”. Who knows if it will get published or not (probably not); I’m not an economist, but the great thing is, you don’t have to be one to see through most of the bullshit that passes for “conventional wisdom” on economics in our media. So far I’ve got the intro and the first 3 chapters drafted.

  107. 107.

    Jeffro

    Back to the Pawlenty-under-the-bus thing: just think of how many big-name Rs now are going to want no part of the Hindenburg that the Romney campaign has become. How many of the former prez candidates (Perry, Santorum, Cain) or potential other veep picks (Portman, McDonnell, Christie, Rubio) are going to go all out for Mitt and Son?

    We need a term for all the pained, strained enthusiasm on those prominent Republican faces from now through Nov.

    Also too, the only person happier than Obama this morning is Jeb Bush, and that’s a fact.

  111. 111.

    Svensker

    @Baud:

    Explains Greenwald.

    Except for the fact that Greenwald writes at Salon, not Slate. But, yeah, other than that, it explains everything.

  112. 112.

    Dennis SGMM

    But show me another Republican who has addressed the nation’s fiscal problems as candidly and precisely as Ryan has.

    Ryan’s candor stops short of explaining which other things he would cut, which tax breaks he’d do away with, or even where he’d want tax rates to be.

    This road map reminds me of stopping for directions in South Texas; “Ya’ can’t get there from here.”

  113. 113.

    DougJ

    @Dennis SGMM:

    How is it precise if the details are fuzzy? That’s what I don’t get. How can Saletan say the details are fuzzy but it’s precise?

  116. 116.

    WereBear

    @Jennifer: If you want any help getting it ready for self-publishing, let me know; I’ve done Kindle, getting ready for Nook. Doesn’t cost you a thing; and I won’t, either :)

  117. 117.

    Turgidson

    @danah gaz (fka gaz):

    Oh yeah, I know – but I’ve never seen a gasbag put it like Saletan did: “sure, Ryan’s ideas are stupid, but have you seen how stupid the rest of his caucus is? This mean’s he ‘s actually a supergenius!” The morans in our punditry usually try to convince us he really is smart, not just that he’s the tallest midget, so to speak.

  118. 118.

    Dennis SGMM

    @DougJ:
    Well, they’re precisely fuzzy. That way, when the whole things adds massively to the deficit Ryan’s Rough Riders can wail “You didn’t follow the plan!”

  120. 120.

    FlipYrWhig

    @DougJ: Technically he’s saying that it’s _more_ precise, not precise in an absolute sense. But Ryan’s plan is “more precise” than other Republican plans the way Hummers are more fuel-efficient than other military-derived vehicles.

  121. 121.

    Turgidson

    @DougJ:

    He’s also “precisely” telling filthy lies about why the budget is in the shape it’s in. There’s nothing candid or precise about Paul f’in Ryan. Also too, he’s a bullshitter who not only think Ayn Rand wasn’t a crazy loon, but thinks she was actually right about stuff.

  122. 122.

    Anoniminous

    @wiscomom:

    Holey-mahloney.

    That’s … ah-er-uh ….

    Actually I don’t know how to describe how horribly awful those polling numbers are.

    @jefft452:

    For what it is worth, a friend whose job it is to analyze this stuff is telling me four years of 1950s level tax rate of domestic profits and the same on the reported $27 TRILLION (!) held offshore by US corporations would pretty much restore the US balance sheet.

  123. 123.

    Hill Dweller

    @mamayaga:

    Ryan’s a Bible-thumper in his own Papist way.

    After reading so many this morning/afternoon, the articles have started to run together, but one referenced Catholic’s and the Church having a real problem with Ryan using his faith to rationalize his granny starving. It got so loud, he actually publicly addressed some of the criticism.

  124. 124.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Turgidson:
    Ryan, like the rest of his party, has amnesia regarding the years 2001-2008. And, it’s mean and uncouth to remind them of what they did during those years.

  125. 125.

    chopper

    @danah gaz (fka gaz):

    i’m holding out to watch downticket races too, but part of me is curious to see what will happen to the GOP ticket.

    before ryan was picked, i was hoping it would be t-paw or the like just to watch the convention fall apart. unfortunately, and partly for that reason, mittens picked ryan. i haz a sad now. i wanted to see blood on the floor in tampa.

  126. 126.

    jp7505a

    Over on Huff. post, Howard Fineman has this bit
    ‘ In part because of Ryan’s budget — endorsed by the GOP in the House and, in general terms, by Romney — and in part because of hard times in the economy, the president’s campaign long ago became, at its core, a defense of the Social State as we know it.

    ‘In a tough economic climate, he says, the last thing we can afford to do is dismantle the existing machinery of defined-benefit guarantees in Social Security, Medicare and other programs.

    Ryan, and now Romney, are now saying just the opposite: that in tough times we can’t afford not to dismantle that machinery, so taxes can be kept low or cut further.

    That’s the essence of what the election is about. It always was. Now it’s out in the open. The functional question is: Which party will have the mandate — and control of Congress — to decide the final outcome of the debate?”

    Which probably sums up the stakes in November as succuntly as I’ve seen.

    But the wanta be flip-flopper in cheif is already running away from the Ryan budget. Which raises an interesting question – why did Ryan accept the VP slot. As was noted many years ago the job of VP isn’t worth a bucket of warm piss, so in theory Ryan is powerless to do anything about Romneys budget decisions.

    On the other hand from his perch in the House on the Budeget committee or maybe Ways and Means he contols what is said and done about the budget. Unless of course he and Romney have an ‘understanding’ and the current flip-flop is just to fool us Rubes (oh how cynical of me).

  127. 127.

    WereBear

    @Jeffro: We need a term for all the pained, strained enthusiasm on those prominent Republican faces from now through Nov.

    In German, it would be something like walletheldhostage.

  128. 128.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro: I suspect a perennial B-lister like Pawlenty rather desperately needs a high-profile job to boost his value as a lobbyist, but the others are probably waiting to see how successful they are at film-flamming the Ryan budget. Frum said this is the biggest “gamble’ since ’64. Jeb Bush’s happiness may be better founded, but I imagine visions of being sworn in by Ratzinberger are dancing in Santorum’s crazy head. And I say, more power to him.

  130. 130.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Hill Dweller: I think it was even the bishops, not just the social-justice nuns, who rapped Ryan’s knuckles over that budget proposal. I hope it means a further thwarting of the attempt to enlist The Catholic Vote for Republicans.

  131. 131.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @jp7505a: wow, that’s strong stuff considering the souce. Sounds like Fineman is taking this film-flammery personally.

  133. 133.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @FlipYrWhig: forced to choose between caring for the least among us and sniffing crotches, Timmy Dolan and his gang will never do more than wag a finger at the GOP. The nuns might prove a quite different story.

  135. 135.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    @Jeffro:

    We need a term for all the pained, strained enthusiasm on those prominent Republican faces from now through Nov.

    Mitt-eating

    Example:

    Wipe that Mitt-eating grin off your face.

  136. 136.

    Misterpuff

    @danah gaz (fka gaz): Well, we still had a surplus when he left office but Bush couldn’t stand that money sitting there when he could be distributing to his bidness buddies. All these deficit hawks don’t want a surplus, which is the only way to pay down the deficit. Bogus liars.

  139. 139.

    Violet

    @chopper:

    before ryan was picked, i was hoping it would be t-paw or the like just to watch the convention fall apart. unfortunately, and partly for that reason, mittens picked ryan. i haz a sad now. i wanted to see blood on the floor in tampa.

    Don’t count it out. Mittens is running away from Ryan’s budget as fast as he can. Wingnuts won’t like that. Let’s see what the next two weeks deliver. If Mitt thoroughly discredits himself by continuing along those lines, there may yet be a revolt.

  140. 140.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @schrodinger’s cat: She buggered off. I don’t know if she got banned and hasn’t created a new incarnation yet, if she gave up on us for being too cudlippy to be worth her time, or if the facility that is responsible for her care finally discovered that she had access to the ‘net in violation of the restraining order.

  141. 141.

    Corner Stone

    @Violet: C’mon. We all know Romney will give speeches to a select audience where he says Ryan Plan is Go! and then give interviews right after where they say they aren’t running on/adopting Ryan Plan.
    It’s going to be Mittastic!

  142. 142.

    PJ

    I think the Republicans conceded the White House at least as far back as this past January, when it was clear they were not going to get a credible Presidential candidate. None of the supposed up and coming Republicans wanted to get close. From a national perspective, after Huntsman (who had no hope in the primaries), Mitt was the best of that bunch, which tells you something. Ryan is just going to dig him deeper.

    So all this is a sideshow. What is really crucial in the next three months are the House and Senate races, and if you have the money to spare, this is where it should go.

  143. 143.

    jp7505a

    And one more tidbit from kaplan – what will happen under Ryan’s social security privatization -‘
    ‘The Social Security Administration concluded that the Ryan-Sununu plan would require huge increases in general budget revenue to make up the shortfall left in payroll tax revenue. Specifically, revenue would have to increase by 1.5 percent of GDP every year, an analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found, or about $225 billion at current GDP. That’s a big honking tax hike. What’s more, under the plan, investments in the stock and bond markets would skyrocket such that by 2050, every single stock or bond in the United States would be owned by a Social Security account. This would mean that the portfolio managers at the Social Security Administration would more or less control the entire means of production in the United States.’

    gee that sounds a lot like my econ 101 defintion of socialism!!!!!!!!!!!

  144. 144.

    ericblair

    @PJ:

    I think the Republicans conceded the White House at least as far back as this past January, when it was clear they were not going to get a credible Presidential candidate.

    This supposes that they’re somewhat rational and someone had some sort of control of the process, which I think are arguable. I don’t think there was any conscious effort outside the Romney camp to get Romney nominated: he was just the one with the big bux and the only one left standing after all the not-Romneys-of-the-week blew up.

    Also, the gooper party slipped the surly bonds of rationality years ago. A majority of them may actually think this is a winning move. This causes its own problems, because having crazy and/or incompetent opponents in any sort of combat or sport can require more care to fight than a more competent but sane opponent. You’ll usually win fine, but have to be careful because they’ll do all sorts of stupid shit that you won’t expect.

  145. 145.

    Buttered Toast

    I agree with most here that on paper this al looks very good for Dems; Ryan, and his budget ARE terrifying, and in a healthy society any ticket and party associated with it would go down in flames. But I sense that people are assuming that Romney will aggressively campaign on Ryan’s plan, and cheerfully go over every line of his budget proposal in detail with any voter or reporter who chances to ask about it.

    It should be obvious by now that Romney has no interest in being questioned about anything at all or held to any viewpoints. He has already secured the advantages or picking Ryan (the far right knows he is in their pocket now); why then scare the rest of the country by openly touting what Ryan stands for?

    I am hopeful enough scrutiny will be paid to Ryan’s beliefs and background to harm the GOP ticket, but it will be a tough slog – unless the country’s media suddenly grows a spine and a conscience. I’m not sure Ryan is quite the magic bullet/coffin nail the Dems are hoping for; there IS no magic bullet: if there were, 45-50% of the country would not consistently vote GOP every 4 yrs. It’s certainly too early to dance on Romney’s grave, sorry to say.

  146. 146.

    Villago Delenda Est

    He “crunched” the numbers for values of “crunched” that translate in plain English as “baked”.

    Of course, this is coming from Lord Saletan, who imagines that the forced birth people will compromise with the rest of us and accept contraception as the solution to the abortion issue.

  147. 147.

    Kathleen

    @quannlace: Shorter CNN: “Paul Ryan is a nice guy with bold, smart ideas and Ombama is just a meany”. Fortunately they could pee their pants in relative privacy, considering not many people watch them.

  148. 148.

    General Stuck

    He has actually crunched the numbers and laid out long-term budget proposals.

    And now Obama will crunch him.

  149. 149.

    jl

    Ryan ain’t crunched no numbers, at least none that add and subtract right. Though what would Saletan, or the other media celebs know about that?

    However, listening to Ryan’s whiny talk this morning, did remind me of one thing, Ryan is great at sitting there whining and complaining that anyone who disagrees with him is uncivil and unfair. He loves to wave taking offense and being hurt as a response to an argument. The media news celebs will love it, but I predict it will get old with voters after they have to put up with that garbage day after day. Another way Ryan is an excellent match up with Biden, who I hope goes into ‘don’t give shit, don’t care mode’.

    On the whining, Ryan is an excellent political tactics foot soldier who will follow Rush’s orders, and very copasetic with Mitt.

  151. 151.

    jl

    And, as I mentioned last night, if you have been following Obama’s and Biden’s speeches, they have been built around the idea that this election is pivotal and confronts the country with a choice between two fundamental visions about what kind of society we want to live in.

    That is a theme that I see them both working up to towards the end of every speech.

    Another way Ryan is lousy pick for anything other than shoring up a lunatic reactionary base, is how Ryan walks right into that theme. Kablam! Always lunge into roundhouse punches, that is a good rule to follow in any fight.

    I guess sometime in March, Obama time traveled into early August, or he is just lucky again. Or something.

  152. 152.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Jeffro:

    We need a term for all the pained, strained enthusiasm on those prominent Republican faces from now through Nov.

    Constipublicanism?

    Conservapation?

    Gaia, just thinking about it makes me yearn for a good two-
    days-long cleanse.

  155. 155.

    jonas

    Earlier, I was trying to imagine how Romney and his people gamed this one out. It didn’t make any sense. Somehow, they figured where they really needed to shore things up was not among independents, key swing states (Ohio? Florida? Virginia?) or Latinos (Rubio?), but….Tea Partiers? Dafuq? Sure, they’re an influential block in the Republican base, but the primaries are over. Then it hit me. This is about the MSM. They asked themselves, what candidate will have the MSM political press and the Villager establishment creaming their slacks? They’ve chosen a VP candidate that the base loves, and who, if Obama attacks him, will be defended by the Beltway media, from Scarborough and Kristol on the right to Saletan and Cohen on the “left.” They don’t even have to buy airtime to respond to Obama’s campaign ads over the Ryan budget. We’ve already seen the response in columns by “serious people” from coast to coast. He “crunches numbers!” He’s “serious”.

    On the other hand, I think it’s going to be pretty cool seeing Biden deal with this douchebag. He won’t have to pull punches like he did with Palin.

  156. 156.

    jonas

    @BruceFromOhio: One important statistic to remember: no VP candidate on a failed ticket has ever gone on to become president at the top of the ticket in a subsequent election. Moreover, when was the last time a (successful) VP candidate hailed from the House rather than the Senate, a governorship, or cabinet post? The last time a GOP candidate picked a Congressman for the VP slot was when Goldwater tapped NY Rep. William C. Miller, and that didn’t end terribly well for the Republicans (Miller, by the way, was the father of comedian/liberal radio show host Stephanie Miller). To be fair, that time around it had more to do with Goldwater’s extremism than Miller’s, but I don’t think Ryan has much of a future after this if Romney loses.

  157. 157.

    Liberty60

    Its been years since I even clicked on Slate. When I first began reading it, it seemed a bit too contrarian, but in that Mickey Kaus/ John Stossel way, where “contrarian” means “contrary to what liberals believe, government aid hurts the poor and black people are the real racists”

    But i never really appreciated until just today how full metal wingnut the mag is.

  158. 158.

    Liberty60

    @jonas:
    Plus, no one who has ever lost the Olympic dressage competition has ever gone on to become First Lady. Not once.

  159. 159.

    Tom Q

    @jonas: Actually, Jonas, FDR was a losing VP nominee (in…I can’t recall right now; either ’20 or ’24). Otherwise, you’re correct.

  160. 160.

    Patricia Kayden

    “Update. I didn’t know this: the managing editor of Slate is a hard-core wingnut.”

    While I didn’t know that Saletan was a wingnut, that’s a good reason for me to continue to not read that website. Good to know.

  161. 161.

    jonas

    @Tom Q: I’ll be darned — you’re right. In 1920. It should be noted, however, that he had become governor of NY before running again at the top of the ticket 10 years later.

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