Will Paul Ryan make an effective attack dog?

[cali]

I'm beginning to believe that that's one of the reasons he was chosen. He's articulate and aggressive as hell, but tries to cloak it in a sort of Jimmy Stewart Mr. Smith Goes to Washington honest and stalwart image. We know he appeals to repubs of all stripes, can he effectively appeal to indies? Does he actually make any difference to the ticket, plus or minus?

rMoney comes off as utterly bloodless. He has the apparent passion of a houseplant.

[SlimJimmy]

1. Don't know yet. I do know that he is articulate on the budget (whether we agree with it or not)

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Only if by attack you mean raising medicare's individual costs from 25% to 68%

with his awful budget plan.

[cali]

4. no, that's not what I mean.

My first reaction to this pick was "oh goody". I'm now not quite as convinced that he's as disastrous a choice as that first response, but I actually don't see him making the difference one way or another.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. They are going to have to defend scrapping medicare.

There isn't going to be an offensive from their side, they are already issuing talking points trying to walk away from the ryan budget. This choice just broadens the attack from the Obama side. rMoney would have done something interesting with, for example, Kelly Ayotte from NH, but he didn't.

[cali]

11. You're certainly right about that. Of course they're saying that they're saving it

but the Obama team has already put out a very good ad slamming the Ryan budget.

[Happyhippychick]

3. Yes. And then Romney will strap him to the roof

[jberryhill]

9. And hose him down

[dkf]

5. Not for personal attacks like Sarah Palin.

He does a not bad attack on policy though. But it's pretty much pure analysis.

[handmade34]

6. yes

he's a likable type and knows a thing or two about the budget... VP Biden will do a good job against him though!

[Avalux]

7. Yes I believe so. And he is skilled at appearing to be ordinary and earnest.

However I don't think he was chosen to sway independents and moderates...Romney needs a lot of help with the GOP fringe/tea partiers, especially younger voters. If he doesn't have them he doesn't have a chance.

[JoePhilly]

8. Yippy dog maybe.

[Brother Buzz]

12. An attack dog that whistles, yes

Romney will shore up the base but lose the Country Club republicans and the independent fence sitters. Bank on it.


Oh Mittyboy, what are you hiding in your tax returns? Controversies without a resolution remain just that, a controversy.

[Johonny]

13. No, Paul Ryan is a great VP pick for Dems to attack.

Independents don't vote for the VP they vote for the president. I see no evidence Paul Ryan understands the budget process or his congress would have passed a reasonable budget on time instead of arguing over his leaflet fantasy budget that couldn't possibly run the government. He's an idiot that talks down to Americans and hypes up fantasy budget problems then proposes fantasy cures for those problems. He works great on Sean Hannity, will that work great against Joe Biden?

So what? Lets say he complains about Obama's budget well that's great he is the house head of the budget. All our current budget problems are his fault, ruining our credit rating, his fault, trying to gut medicare, his fault, trying to cut the riches taxes and raise ordinary Americans, his fault, no job creation, his fault. Congress approval rating are vastly lower than the presidents. The American people blame congress way more than Obama. They just picked the poster child for we congress can't do anything but rename post offices the past 2 years. In many ways Palin was harder to argue policy against than Ryan.

Ryan isn't a game changer, he is in fact a much more amplified message that Obama is running against. The pick in no way changes what Obama's team wanted to do political message wise this campaign. It actually makes it easier to pin the message to Mitt Romney. If Romney wanted to get in roads to the middle, I see no way taking this conservative idiot will help him long run. If he didn't have his "base" fired up by now then as Sarah Palin shows firing them up with your VP pick is a great way to back seat in the presidential bus. Do independents like to vote for candidates that don't appear to be in charge of their own campaign... no.

The of course there is Paul Ryans radical anti-women agenda too... This is a win for Obama