Will Ryan as the Choice as VP Hurt GOP Congressional Candidates?

The exodus has already begun of Republican candidates slowly walking away from the ticket because of the Ryan Budget and Medicare -- that same Medicare debacle by Ryan who helped convince President Bush to try to privatize social security which led to a Democrat takeover of the House in 2006.  His budget(s) have drawn scorn from Catholic Bishops who on April 17, 2012, said the GOP budget fails the moral test.  The GOP budget is the Ryan budget and that statement by the US Council of Catholic Bishops stings along with the Nuns on the Bus because the budget destroys the safety net of those most vulnerable while giving tax breaks to the rich.  That is not exactly a part of Catholic teaching.

Ryan is trying to also trying to run away from Ayn Rand but that isn't working very well either as you keep hearing quotes from him about her philosophy on the economy.  She was an atheist which I have a hard time computing with someone who claims to be religious this time a Catholic.  IMHO he is only running away from Ayn Rand because he is running for VP.  

Already in two special elections in districts lost by Obama, the Democrats won using the Ryan Budget and changes to social security against Republicans which does not bode well for the House in November:

When we look back in November 2012, the biggest effect of the Ryan pick may have been putting the House in play. Just ask Ron Barber (AZ-8) or Kathy Hochul (NY-26) how the Romney-Ryan plans play in a congressional race. 

Their two special elections were in districts Obama lost in 2008, and both ran and won in part by tarring their opponents with the type of Medicare cuts and privatization (combined with tax cuts for millionaires) Ryan and Romney are proposing. 

Republican challengers and incumbents almost uniformly supported the Ryan Budget, which as Paul Krugman points out, is “a fantasy” from someone who’s shown “no competence at all on the numbers thing.” They’re going to be answering for it just like Republicans did in those two special elections. There will be many new Democratic members of Congress who are sworn in on Jan. 2013 who will personally thank Mitt Romney for picking Paul Ryan as is VP choice.

Now we learn that the NRCC has sent out a memo to candidates on how to handle the Ryan budget.  WHAT?

NRCC to GOP candidates: Don't say 'entitlement reform' 

EMILY SCHULTHEIS | 8/13/12 2:05 PM EDT 

In case you needed more proof that Paul Ryan is already affecting House and Senate races: just two hours after the Ryan announcement on Saturday, the National Republican Congressional Committee sent out a memo advising candidates on how to address the issue in their own campaigns. My colleague Alex Isenstadt has the details.

Unbelievable that two hours after the announcement of Ryan to the ticket, the NRCC sends out a memo on what to say.  Didn't take them long to get the word out and then someone leaked the memo. 

Yesterday Ryan is bragging he is at the Iowa State Fair and Obama is going to skip the fair.  Don't know who fed Ryan that info but it wasn't true.  Obama showed up at the fair and bought a round of Bud Light for the people there which seemed to irritate Sen Grassley.  For months I have heard people say they know they can sit down and have a beer with Obama but not with Romney and it wasn't because he is Mormon, it was because he is so stiff and has little charisma.  He is not someone you could carry on a conversation while Obama loves meeting people.

When Ryan was asked at the State Fair about help for farmers in this drought situation, he refused to answer without checking with Romney.  When told it is in the farm bill being stalled in the House, he still refused to answer.  How can you send a candidate to Iowa and not have briefed on what to say about the disaster relief in the farm bill?  A lot of the people surrounding Romney managed to take a popular Governor in FL, Charlie Crist, and make it so his numbers tanked when he ran for Senate, became 3rd Party, and lost in the general in a 3-way race.  Obama didn't hesitate to address the drought:

The president addressed the drought that has taken a toll on crops, saying he has directed the Agriculture Department to buy up to $150 million worth of meat and poultry to help relieve farmers and ranchers. The president has been pushing passage of the farm bill, but House Republican leaders chose not to bring a bipartisan, committee-passed measure to the floor before the August recess and instead passed a short-term emergency aid package that Senate Democrats refused to consider, calling it too limited.

Ryan couldn't even take hecklers without saying they obviously didn't come from Iowa or Wisconsin where people are friendly.  They came from Iowa, but his version of friendly and mine on Wisconsin are two different versions.  Traveling through WI, I didn't find the people particularly friendly.  It is like in Ohio, it not a friendly state even when you grew up there.

While the far right Republican base is going apoplectic, behind the scenes you are starting to hear panic that this ticket will start hurting not only Congressional races but now Senate races.  Already you are reading about candidates distancing themselves.  The Far right Tea Party wanted far right candidates to run in House and Senate races not to mention the Presidency and it could cost Republicans big time.  When you have candidates running in the GOP who say they will not compromise like Mourdock in Indiana, you have a major problem coming your way.  Lugar would have a shoe in even though he is not someone that a lot of us would want as our Senator.  What happens in IN now is anyone's guess.  Never thought IN would go for Obama in 2008 and it did.

• A quiet panic behind the scenes

  By Steve Benen

  -

  Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:45 AM EDT

  
  

  Rachel explained on the air last night that there are plenty of Republican congressional candidates who are suddenly going out of their way to remind voters they disagree with Paul Ryan on Medicare. It's a reminder that Republican activists are excited to see Ryan on the national ticket, but Republican officials are, well, pretty darn nervous.
  
  How does one know for sure? There's one big hint: Republicans are dishing to reporters about the behind-the-scenes anxiety that appears to be bordering on panic.
  

  Away from the cameras, and with all the usual assurances that people aren't being quoted by name, there is an unmistakable consensus among Republican operatives in Washington: Romney has taken a risk with Ryan that has only a modest chance of going right -- and a huge chance of going horribly wrong. 

  In more than three dozen interviews with Republican strategists and campaign operatives -- old hands and rising next-generation conservatives alike -- the most common reactions to Ryan ranged from gnawing apprehension to hair-on-fire anger that Romney has practically ceded the election. [...] 

  [T]he more pessimistic strategists don't even feign good cheer: They think the Ryan pick is a disaster for the GOP. Many of these people don't care that much about Romney -- they always felt he faced an improbable path to victory -- but are worried that Ryan's vocal views about overhauling Medicare will be a millstone for other GOP candidates in critical House and Senate races.

  Note there are two parallel tracks to this. The first is the group of Republicans who suspect that Ryan will make it very difficult for Romney to win. The second is the group of Republicans who agree with the first group, but who also believe Ryan will hurt the party up and down the ballot.
  
  At this point, just as the party is supposed to be coming together in advance of the national convention, both contingents are dishing to reporters about their discontent. There's some irony to this -- Romney picked Ryan to bring the party together. It's worked insofar as Republican activists and Republican media are delighted, but it's come up short to the extent that GOP candidates and their aides don't know how to run with the "kill Medicare" guy near the top of the ballot.
  
  Excerpt:  Read More at Rachel Maddow Blog

Found this article on the Maddow Blog which is starting to also appear with USA Today, Politico, and others.  Hard to find facts today in the conservative world without spin.  I have never seen anything like it where your find sources on the left and on the right you find outlandish claims that when examined further don't hold up.  Maybe the candidates should turn off Limbaugh and Fox News and do their own research and then maybe they wouldn't be so far out in left field with their comments.  They seem to parrot Fox News and Limbaugh the next day after comments are made on the air -- a few times it has been the same day.  A perfect example is what the candidates for the GOP ticket and the GOP Chair are saying you can debunk but they say it anyway



The  RNC Chairman Priebus was lying this weekend about Obama on Medicare claims when he declared on the air Obama has blood on his hands with stealing $700B from Medicare when that was not the case.  What kind of a Chairman makes that kind of a remark against a sitting President or any candidate- talk about low class.  Here are the real facts that I have found from research on the question:

It is actually $500B not $700B. Obama did make the $500B cut BUT the devil is in the details which Fox News who feeds the RNC and Romney/Ryan what to say missed.  The cuts were from Medicare Advantage, a Republican give away to the Insurance companies, cost controls at Hospitals and by plugging fraud, waste, and abuses. Ryan then shamelessly took these savings and inserted it into his Budget and all the Repubs voted for it.  Now Ryan is attacking Obama on the $700B which he knows is not true as he used the $500B for a budget savings.

This group of Republicans starting with the RNC Chair seem to be enjoying being dishonest with their outlandish, distasteful  claims when it takes 30 seconds to find the truth.  Everyone knows in politics that candidates have a tendency to exaggerate but this time we are getting outright lies out of the RNC and now the candidates for President/Vice President.  What has happened to the Republican Party in 2012 as they after done a drastic shift to the far right?  Truth seems to have taken a major hit.