"Hey Joe, I didn't know you could travel through time!"
At the vice presidential debate last night, Joe Biden made a curious comment regarding Sarah Palin:
“You know, I heard that death panel argument from Sarah Palin. It seems that every vice presidential debate, I hear this kind of stuff about panels. But let's talk about Medicare..."
Last week's presidential debate was an amazing, incredible evisceration of Barack Obama's campaign, and I am really looking forward to tonight's contest between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan.
Paul Ryan gave an interview earlier this morning in response to today's jobs report, which he slammed as "the result of failed leadership in Washington [and] bad fiscal policies coming from the administration:"
I ran into Matt Kibbe, the President of FreedomWorks, earlier today in the Google Lounge at the Tampa Convention Center. Here's his comments on Paul Ryan as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee and why conservatives need to unite behind the Romney/Ryan ticket to defeat Barack Obama:
I've been saying for awhile that every single Republican candidate needs to start every speech they make from now until November 6th with "By the way, Paul Ryan's Medicare plan doesn't change a darn thing for seniors 55 and older!" and then segue into whatever topic they actually wanted to discuss.
The Romney campaign sent out a memo earlier this morning, detailing some of the positive effects from Paul Ryan joining the ticket. The enthusiasm that I have been seeing online and hearing from fellow Republicans is backed up by hard numbers that show a clear enthusiasm for the Romney-Ryan ticket:
The internet exploded with excitement since Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate, with the new official Twitter account for the campaign, @PaulRyanVP, getting over 50,000 followers in the first day. The account now has almost 80,000.
The buzz translated in to real world effects too, with the thousands of conservatives using their wallets to show their pleasure with Romney's choice of Ryan. The campaign raised over $1.2 million in the first few hours after the announcement, and $3.5 million in the first 24 hours, as reported by campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul:
It's official! Confirming what Twitter knew last night, Mitt Romney has confirmed that Paul Ryan will be his running mate. Here's the official press release from the campaign:
Mitt Romney is announcing his running mate tomorrow morning...err...make that today, since it just passed midnight on the East Coast...
Anyway, it's official. Romney will announce his pick for vice president tomorrow in Norfolk, VA at 8:45 am. Excerpt from Romney digital team email I just received:
Medicare is going broke. That's not Republican spin or Democrat spin. It's a fact.
And it's not far off. Medicare's trustees recently said its eventual collapse has been accelerated. I'm 41. Before I turn 55, the main trust fund in Medicare will be depleted.
Saving Medicare is going to require reforming Medicare, and that means moving past politics as usual.
According to StateHealthFacts.org, Florida has nearly 2 million Medicare beneficiaries under the age of 75. These Floridians face the real possibility of living to see drastic cuts to their benefits. Crueler still, seniors like my mom and dad, who are nearing retirement age, may have Medicare benefits for only a few years before the rug is pulled out from under them.
House Republicans, led by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, wrote a plan that balances the budget, pays down the debt, cuts spending and saves Medicare. I support it.
The Ryan plan saves Medicare without making any changes for current beneficiaries or seniors close to enrolling. Future retirees — Americans like me who are 55 or younger — will be offered essentially the same kind of health plan as members of Congress receive, a payment-support system where they pick from approved plans. Poorer and sicker seniors get more money. Wealthy seniors get less.
Mike Haridopolos' campaign strategy has been looking more and more like it's being run by the Titanic's navigation team. After what happened yesterday, it's getting closer to the Hindenburg-crashing-into-Titanic level of disaster.
Haridopolos made an appearance on conservative talk radio host Ray Junior's program, and ran into a pile of trouble when he was asked about Paul Ryan's budget plan. Haridopolos repeatedly refused to answer the question, over and over, making Junior extremely frustrated, to the point where he kicked Haridopolos off the show.
After repeated efforts to get a straight answer out of Haridopolos, the exasperated host finally said "get rid of him." Will voters do the same if Haridopolos keeps it up?
Exactly. I am absolutely flabbergasted that someone who wants to run for the United States Senate refuses to answer a simple question about how he would vote on a significant and current Republican budget proposal. Haridopolos' answer that his vote on the Ryan plan is nothing more than a "hypothetical" is one of the worst waffles I've heard from a politician in a long time.
The Waffle™: The Official Mascot of the Haridopolos 2012 Campaign
Someone needs to get Haridopolos a dictionary so he can look up "hypothetical." (Heck, it comes from a Greek word, "hupothetikos" so you would think he might understand it!) A hypothetical is a situation based on conjecture, a statement or idea thought to be true but unproven. The Ryan plan is no hypothetical. It's a real and specific budget plan that was brought up for a vote this week. It's on the internet! You can read the entire plan, along with summaries and discussion notes yourself.
For the record, note that George LeMieux has also repeatedly ducked the question about whether he would have voted for the Ryan plan.
Only Adam Hasner has had the backbone to step forward and say that he would have voted for the Ryan budget, telling Ken Blackwell at the National Review that he would vote for it "without hesitation," because "the alternatives are rationed care and declining healthcare options, watching Social Security and Medicare slowly go bankrupt, or America faltering under the weight of unsustainable entitlement programs.”
Friends, we have three choices in the 2012 Republican Senate primary: a waffle, Charlie Crist's "maestro," or an actual conservative who has the backbone to give a straight answer to the vital question for any candidate for public office: how will you vote?
UPDATE #2: The damage control efforts have begun. Good luck with that. Note that even in the text of a press release that was presumably written and vetted by his communications staff, he still isn't giving a direct answer.
David Limbaugh's column from Monday makes some excellent points about how Republicans should remember that "the liberal media do not have the best interests of Reagan conservatives in mind" in their coverage of our current and potential 2012 Presidential candidates. A must-read:
Ashley Sewell, who blogs at TX Trendy Chick, invited me on her radio program to discuss my post about Israel. Bethany Shondark was also a guest on the show. I met both Ashley and Bethany at CPAC this year: two awesome and feisty ladies who you should be following on Twitter if you aren't already (@TXTrendyChick and @bethanyshondark)
The Minority Report, a great conservative blog where I sometimes contribute content, recently went through a site redesign. The new website is http://theminorityreport.co/tmr and you can read my latest TMR post here (cross-posted here on this blog earlier this week).
Here's a little perspective on the Democrats' victory in the NY-26 Congressional race (and of course, information you're not getting in the mainstream media). One intriguing element is the presence of a "fake tea party" spoiler candidate (see my posts about the efforts of a fake tea party here in Florida here).
I'm not sure whether this is what the White House meant by "leading from behind," or if the President is just nostalgic for a time when his poll numbers were better, but on a Tuesday visit to London's Westminster Abbey, President Obama signed the guest book with the date "24 May 2008." On the O'Reilly Factor last night, Dennis Miller had a humorous comment: "He signed 2008 but everything he signs leads to inflation. By the time he gets back to D.C., it'll read 2011."
Can you blame Obama for wishing it's 2008, when Michelle was finally proud of her country? Instead it's 2011 & we're proud of Bibi.Wed May 25 06:38:10 via webRachel
esqcapades
Tim Pawlenty made a campaign stop in Tampa earlier this week. From what I hear from friends who attended, it was a great event and he made a very favorable impression.
An ABC News camera caught an interesting conversation between Congressman Paul Ryan and former President Bill Clinton regarding the recent New York special election and the current budget debate in Congress (hat tip: @kesgardner and Legal Insurrection):
