Obama/Biden vs Romney/Ryan--America's Choose Your Own Adventure Moment

[oxcoug]

Ryan bump? Latest from Rasmussen has Romney +1 in Wisconsin.

And +2 in VA and +3 in OH per Purple Strategies. Maybe a Ryan bump or maybe some other factors.

[pellegrino]

Wouldn't making the change at this point look like fear or weakness on Obama's side and a concession that he has the wrong VP?

the only way Obama drops Biden from the ticket is if Biden had some health issues that would cause him to withdraw from public life. Of course, that could be in the works as well.

[LA Ute]

the only way Obama drops Biden from the ticket is if Biden had some health issues that would cause him to withdraw from public life. Of course, that could be in the works as well.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to notify the Secret Service about your post.

[snowcat]

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Kirsten Powers on Paul Ryan's potential appeal to Gen Xers

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...paul-ryan.html

It's interesting that a center left, Gen Xer pundit like Kirsten Powers would write this.

Then Romney's campaign goes on the offensive and blasts the airwaves and media with "Obama took $700 billion out of medicare." The message is now out there that anyone 55 and older doesn't need to worry about their coverage under the current iteration of the Ryan plan. And Gen Xers, Yers and Millenials (anyone born from the mid 60s on) know the Boomers well enough to understand that they will pillage this entitlement to insolvency, so the Ryan plan will hold some appeal.

5 days and counting... I'm still waiting for all this Paul Ryan baggage to rear its ugly head and exert some downward pressure on Romney's poll numbers.

[scottie]

White House says Obama will stick with Biden as running mate

[Color Me Badd Fan]

The GM bailout is one of the things that Obama is touting as an achievement in his presidency. In fact, he inferred last week that he wants to do it some more. Here's a column about how that bailout is going:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiswoo...kruptcy-again/

Romney succinctly told everyone why the bailout was a bad idea (this is quote I gleaned from a blog which is taken directly out of Romney's op-ed):

If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for on Tuesday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed. …

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course – the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check. …

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs.

Emphasis added by me.

This kind of thing was in Romney's wheelhouse. He made his money at Bain by buying inefficient ventures and getting rid of the inefficiencies to make them more competitive.

It's not surprising that what Romney said about this is actually appearing to come to pass. GM has declining market share, uncompetitive products, lower comparative quality. Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Subaru can put thousands a dollars more into a car than GM and sell it for a price comparable to competing GM vehicles. The Korean makers have even lower legacy costs and they can even undercut the Japanese makers. The Japanese makers are largely maintaining or even slowly growing their market share and the Koreans are rapidly increasing their own share.

A managed bankruptcy (e.g. the government only getting involved to provide debtor in possession financing -- not what the Obama administration did) that would have followed conventional Chapter 11 laws would have eliminated or contained a substantial amount of these legacy costs.

[snowcat]

White House says Obama will stick with Biden as running mate

Carney said it was an attempt to distract from the message because “the other side is losing these policy debates pretty overwhelmingly.”

[Color Me Badd Fan]

White House says Obama will stick with Biden as running mate

My honest opinion on this is that I would have been scared if Obama threw out Biden and picked up Hillary. Not scared because Hillary is dangerous, I think she would make a competent VP and President -- but I want Obama to lose and I think throwing out Biden and picking up Hillary would provide a big boost to his campaign.

I think everyone understands that Biden's a moron. Some would call it a sign of desperation if he dumped Biden, but I think that would subside quickly and the Democrats would be more energized with Hillary on the ticket.

[creekster]

TO all those who say Biden has been a decent VP I am curious what you mean by that. As far as I can tell, a VP has two functions: 1. mouthpiece for the adminsitration; 2. waiting for the president to die so he can become president.

Everyone seems to agree that he is a lousy spokesperson and that we wouldnt want him in the oval office. So what else is he doing that makes him seems like a good VP?

[Lost Student]

TO all those who say Biden has been a decent VP I am curious what you mean by that. As far as I can tell, a VP has two functions: 1. mouthpiece for the adminsitration; 2. waiting for the president to die so he can become president.

Everyone seems to agree that he is a lousy spokesperson and that we wouldnt want him in the oval office. So what else is he doing that makes him seems like a good VP?

Duh, he's also the tiebreak vote (I'm sure he'll get to use that function eventually).

[CJF]

My honest opinion on this is that I would have been scared if Obama threw out Biden and picked up Hillary. Not scared because Hillary is dangerous, I think she would make a competent VP and President -- but I want Obama to lose and I think throwing out Biden and picking up Hillary would provide a big boost to his campaign.

I think everyone understands that Biden's a moron. Some would call it a sign of desperation if he dumped Biden, but I think that would subside quickly and the Democrats would be more energized with Hillary on the ticket.

Completely agree.

[YOhio]

Paul Ryan:

Paul Ryan in Ohio just now: “As Joe Biden might say, it’s great to be here in Nevada!”

[dabrockster]

My honest opinion on this is that I would have been scared if Obama threw out Biden and picked up Hillary. Not scared because Hillary is dangerous, I think she would make a competent VP and President -- but I want Obama to lose and I think throwing out Biden and picking up Hillary would provide a big boost to his campaign.

I think everyone understands that Biden's a moron. Some would call it a sign of desperation if he dumped Biden, but I think that would subside quickly and the Democrats would be more energized with Hillary on the ticket.

I agree with this. If he had changed I think it would have solidfied his re-election.. Soooo glad he didn't..

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Paul Ryan:

Awesome.