The unofficial Obama and Romney VP speculation thread

[Surfah]

How many times did the contrary opinion say the words "radical","Dangerous" and "extreme"?

Donna Brazile wrote it. Has she ever worked on a campaign that won?

[Pelado]

Donna Brazile wrote it. Has she ever worked on a campaign that won?

Not that I'm aware of.

Never been impressed with her "analysis" - she fumbles through the talking points and rarely has something original to say.

[Tex]

Reactions from both the left and the right:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/13/opinio...html?hpt=hp_t1

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/11/opinio...html?hpt=hp_t1

Bill Bennett vs. Donna Brazile is not a fair fight.

[YOhio]

The Democrat strategy for attacking Paul Ryan.

[byu71]

Bill Bennett vs. Donna Brazile is not a fair fight.

A debate I would love to see is Paul Ryan vs Debbie Wasserman Shitlz.

The rules though would have to be Debbie has to answer the question and not go off on some tangent talking point and she would have to shut up when it wasn't her turn.

[ERCougar]

Lol at anyone seriously comparing Ryan to Palin.

Seriously.
It smacks of desperation, and that from the incumbent party. It is seriously entertaining to watch. It's even drawn in DDD.

I'm pro-choice, anti-capital punishment, and I like the idea of mandatory health insurance. I voted for Obama. I like Mitt, but I love Paul Ryan. Why? Because he's the only politician in the ring who has shown a serious commitment to cutting our debt, and that is by far my most important political issue. We have to stop stealing from our children. Maybe voters like me aren't very common--the response from the left sure demonstrates that balancing the budget is way down their list of priorities--but I have to hope.

[LA Ute]

Seriously.
It smacks of desperation, and that from the incumbent party. It is seriously entertaining to watch. It's even drawn in DDD.

I'm pro-choice, anti-capital punishment, and I like the idea of mandatory health insurance. I voted for Obama. I like Mitt, but I love Paul Ryan. Why? Because he's the only politician in the ring who has shown a serious commitment to cutting our debt, and that is by far my most important political issue. We have to stop stealing from our children. Maybe voters like me aren't very common--the response from the left sure demonstrates that balancing the budget is way down their list of priorities--but I have to hope.

There's going to be some confusion about what Ryan has proposed to do about Medicare. There are two Ryan plans, one he came up with himself in the spring of 2011, and another which he came out with in December 2011 in tandem with Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. That December plan is the one he put in his proposed 2012 budget and which he is pushing now. The first one was more radical and it is the one Democrats will want to talk about.

This is an ABC News summary of both plans and the differences in them. Here's the official summary by both Wyden and Ryan of their proposal.

The latest plan is a serious effort by serious people to solve a problem everyone knows exists, but few have the courage to address, IMO.

[LA Ute]

By the way, this was edited out of last night's 60 Minutes interview with Romney and Ryan:

Ryan added, “My mom is a Medicare senior in Florida. Our point is we need to preserve their benefits, because government made promises to them that they’ve organized their retirements around. In order to make sure we can do that, you must reform it for those of us who are younger. And we think these reforms are good reforms. That have bipartisan origins. They started from the Clinton commission in the late ’90s.”

[myboynoah]

Wolf schools Wasserman Schultz on Ryan's Medicare plans.

[YOUTUBE]r5NJF5Fcvmg[/YOUTUBE]

Obama's mediscare strategy

[Omaha 680]

I went back and looked at the data and you are admittedly correct. The deficit won't be eliminated only due to the economy picking back up and termination of the wars. Those two factors amount to a bit over half of the deficit. Of course, if you factor in the Bush tax cuts, that gets you the rest of the way there too.

I just explained above how it doesn't get us even close to halfway there. Even if you go to Clinton level defense spending, we are still at $900 Billion deficits. The bush tax cuts expiring would not net us an additional $900 billion/year.

Are you really unwilling to admit that Obama increasing spending is a major driver of the deficit? It's all there in the historical tables on the white house website. If I am misinterpreting the numbers, I'm happy to admit it. But you'll have to show me what I'm missing.

[Uncle Ted]

I just explained above how it doesn't get us even close to halfway there. Even if you go to Clinton level defense spending, we are still at $900 Billion deficits. The bush tax cuts expiring would not net us an additional $900 billion/year.

Are you really unwilling to admit that Obama increasing spending is a major driver of the deficit? It's all there in the historical tables on the white house website. If I am misinterpreting the numbers, I'm happy to admit it. But you'll have to show me what I'm missing.

[calicoug]

I just explained above how it doesn't get us even close to halfway there. Even if you go to Clinton level defense spending, we are still at $900 Billion deficits. The bush tax cuts expiring would not net us an additional $900 billion/year.

Are you really unwilling to admit that Obama increasing spending is a major driver of the deficit? It's all there in the historical tables on the white house website. If I am misinterpreting the numbers, I'm happy to admit it. But you'll have to show me what I'm missing.

Ok. The deficit right now is about $1.3 trillion. Half of that is $650 billion.

Federal revenue as a percent of GDP in 2011 (the last full completed year) was 15.1% (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals -See Table 2.3). Just before the recession, revenue as a percent of GDP was 18.5% (basically at or even slightly below the historical norm). That is a delta of 3.4%. GDP in 2011 was $15.1 trillion x 3.4%=$513 billion. Using your number of $200 billion in war spending, $200 billion + $513 billion=$713 billion=55% of total deficits (i.e., more than half).

Edit: On re-reading, I see the $200 billion amount you gave was for 2008 only. Presumably it has dropped somewhat since then. If it has dropped to less than $137 billion then it would be less than half (but I doubt it has- looking for info now). I would also note, however, that the $200 billion number you give would only constitute "overseas contingency operations" which are out of the federal budget and represent direct war spending. If you include other ancillary costs of war (such as VA care for the over 30,000 wounded) the costs are significantly higher than what you are representing here.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Wolf schools Wasserman Schultz on Ryan's Medicare plans.

Obama's mediscare strategy

Wow.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Wow.

Lifelike Talking Points Robot.

Why should we believe anything the Rockeater from Never Ending Story says, especially a day after she claimed she didn't know the political affiliation of the people running Priorities USA. When will these people understand they lose credibility when they throw these whoppers out there? Wolf obvioulsy wasn't having any of it. Next thing you know she'll be saying that Paul Ryan only has a 27% favorability rating.

[dabrockster]

50% Now View Paul Ryan Favorably; 43% Say He Was Right Choice


The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters now have a favorable opinion of Ryan, while 32% view him unfavorably. This includes 29% with a Very Favorable view of Romney’s vice presidential pick and 13% with a Very Unfavorable one. Only 13% are now unfamiliar with Ryan, and five percent (5%) are not sure about him. (To see survey question wording, click here.)



http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publ...s_right_choice