Quote of the day

[Norman Bernstein]

interesting:

Quote of the Day

"I think it's a very bold choice. And an exciting and interesting pick. It's going to elevate the campaign into a debate over big ideas. It means Romney-Ryan can run on principles and provide some real direction and vision for the Republican Party. And probably lose. Maybe big."

-- Former Bush adviser Mark McKinnon, quoted by Politico, on Mitt Romney's choice of Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate.

[Norman Bernstein]

He's not the only one:

“Whether or not they [the Romney campaign] want to say that they have their own plan on Day One, or whatever they’re doing, it doesn’t change the reality of them having to own the Ryan plan. How is that in the wheelhouse of creating jobs?” added a GOP consultant.

Joked another: “The most popular phrase in Washington right now is: ‘I love Paul Ryan, but …’”

“This could be the defining moment of the campaign. If they win the battle to define Medicare, then I believe Romney wins the presidency. If they lose it, then they lose big in the fall,” the same strategist said, acknowledging that Romney had to choose from a flawed list of VP options

“He just doesn’t seem like he can step into the job on Day One,” said the strategist, who professed himself a Ryan fan.


“Very not helpful down ballot — very,” said one top Republican consultant.

“This is the day the music died,” one Republican operative involved in 2012 races said after the rollout. The operative said that every House candidate now is racing to get ahead of this issue.

Another strategist emailed midway through Romney and Ryan’s first joint event Saturday: “The good news is that this ticket now has a vision. The bad news is that vision is basically just a chart of numbers used to justify policies that are extremely unpopular.”

“It turned a referendum into a choice,” said one Washington Republican lawyer. “[Choosing Ryan] forfeited the no-real-world-experience point Romney has been building up for months [about Obama] and put a new state in play that was otherwise trending his way [Florida].”

A top Republican in the 2012 campaign expressed doubt that even a protracted fight about the national debt would produce the kind of outcome Republicans are looking for: “My polling says that while the debt does matter to people, (a) they don’t really like any of the things we would have to do to fix it and (b) the economy has roared back as the No. 1 issue in every battleground state, eclipsing the issue that Ryan brings to the fore.”

ALL of these quotes come from Republican strategists, operatives, and consultants.

go ahead, spin THAT into good news

[Tom Montgomery]

The Bilge tea partiers are thrilled with the Ryan choice and nothing anyone says, not even other Republicans, will diminish their joy.

[Norman Bernstein]

No way, I'd have your union all over my keester.....actualy, I din't think that's news period.

Ya gotta admit, in addition to the 'wild enthusiasm' over Ryan, there's also some serious concerns.....

[ccmanuals]

You heard the term "a bold choice" all over the media.

WTH was so bold? They picked a white, male, christian, main stream republican for crying out loud. In fact if you squint you can hardly tell him apart from the rest of the Romney clan.

Nothing bold as far as I can tell.

[Rum_Pirate]

Looking on from outside I suspect, wouldn't you agree, that Ryan is a better choice than Palin.

[Donn]

... but she hammers her points home way too relentlessly, and it gets obnoxious after a while.

...

[Uncle Duke]

Speaking of quotes, which apparently you aren't anymore but what the heck, I like this one from L.Z. Granderson:

There are moments in some of Romney's speeches in which he comes across like the guy who doesn't wave when you let him into traffic, because in his mind, he was able to merge on his own.

[Gerarddm]

Mary Matalin says he is both personally and politically "ecstatic" by the Ryan choice. Odd. I wonder about the conversations she has at home with James Carville...

[Norman Bernstein]

Looking on from outside I suspect, wouldn't you agree, that Ryan is a better choice than Palin.

Only in a relative sense.

However, the impetus for the pick was the same: do something 'bold' to rescue a flagging campaign. The effect may well be the same: lose more people than you gain, by doing so.

[wardd]

the republicans have lost in the past because they were not extreme enough, they are not making that mistake again

[Tom Montgomery]

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!

Good one, warrd.

[Shang]

Looking on from outside I suspect, wouldn't you agree, that Ryan is a better choice than Palin.

In that comparison, Ryan is a better choice than a Bartlett pear.

[Keith Wilson]

. . . go ahead, spin THAT into good news.

No need to spin, it is good news!