Posted on 08/20/2012 5:37:46 AM PDT by IbJensen
We are one week into Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan. A number of polls are coming out telling a variety of stories about what it means. But one thing is clear: Barack Obama’s campaign has had several significant strategic failures this summer. And they failed to define Paul Ryan out of the gate with their Mediscare tactics. And they failed to define Mitt Romney this summer with a huge campaign spend.
The Obama campaign hoped to use the summer to define Mitt Romney. They spent $25 million in May ads. Obama spent $58m in June. What effect did it have? At the end of July, Purple Strategies, a bipartisan polling firm, found (PDF) that Romney has pulled ahead of Obama, even as Obama’s favorability ticked up slightly. Obama’s out of control campaign spending yielded nothing, just like his out of control government spending yielded nothing. Politico even described that poll as giving the Ryan pick a small bump for the Romney campaign.
But then the bombshell came. After a week of Mediscare attacks on Paul Ryan, they were not able to dislodge seniors in Florida. According to a poll, reported by the Palm Beach Post:
But two Florida polls conducted since Ryan’s selection suggest that voters who are 65 and older support Ryan and his budget plan more than younger voters do. A third Florida poll released this week doesn’t include an age breakdown, but finds the state’s voters agreeing more with Ryan’s description of his budget and Medicare plan than with Democratic criticisms that it would “end Medicare as we know it.”
The challenge for the Obama campaign is that if they can’t scare older voters away from Republicans with dishonest attacks on Paul Ryan’s proposal to save Medicare, then they are trapped. Paul Ryan turns out to be a big win. He is a candidate who is deeply connected to the industrial midwest which will be the swing region of the country this election. The Purple Strategies poll found that he helps most in Ohio. He will also help with young voters disenchanted and under-employed by the failure of the Obama economy.
So the Obama campaign has failed in the two main tests. They hugely overspent Romney to disqualify him. They failed. And they have tried for three years to attack Republicans with the Ryan budget. And the polls in Florida, the place that should be most vulnerable to attacks, show that that failed.
Chicago, you have an emergency.
Paul Ryan delivers the message with a real fervor. Nothing contrived about him, and it comes across. Absolutely nailed to the wall the canard that he is cutting medicare for the retirees. Made clear that the program won’t stand solvent unless it is modified “for his generation”. Great way to deliver it. Only wish we had other Republican leaders as ardent and heartfelt as he is.
Team Romeny/Ryan need to make commercials from the video of Ryan ‘addressing’ the faults in Obamacare — with Obama’s obvious reaction — during the Healthcare Summit.
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One of my first posts in the live thread of that Summit was to the effect that the first Pubbie should have stood up and said, ‘Mr. President, we need a jobs and economy summit more than we need a healthcare summit at this time.’
Democrats have been crying Medicare wolf since Reagan......
Guess since all seniors still have their Medicare and additional plans....that wolf is toothless...
What’s pretty humorous is probaly must of the democrats and people in the WH didn’t know what was in the ACA plan since it was drawn up by policy wonks in some back room now they need to defend the defenseless.....they are basically doing a chinese fire drill trying to find a way to put the teeth back into the wolf.....
-—— they were not able to dislodge seniors in Florida.-——
I watched Ryan’s presentation to the seniors at the Villages on Saturday morning. He was cool, intense, believable. There was no rhetorical hype or tricks....just facts. They were firmly in the palm of hi hand. He had them.
He went to the Villages, the Florida county said to have the largest senior population in the state. He drew a tremendous crowd. I don’t recall an enumeration but it was lots ans lots of cheering, smiling, grey headed people.
He brought along a prop, his mother. He told of hardship and of her going back to school and then starting a business. He then said something like “ She did do that by herself” and brought the house down.
If the campaign in Chicago was watching, it was like watching the A bomb destroy Hiroshima.
If the campaign in Chicago was watching, it was like watching the A bomb destroy Hiroshima.
Now THAT is an excellent thought!!! Have you noticed we finally heard reports of say around 50,000 in attendance. The media will NOT report the crowd sizes accurately, AND we get the lame - “we are restricting crowd sizes on purpose” from The Won. BWAAA Great fodder for stand up comedy acts.
Don’t you just love the smell of desperation in the morning?
I truly hate the entire lot of them and what they stand for. I can’t wait to remove them all come November.
My mom just turned 94 last week. We took her out to dinner ,for her birthday, and the first thing she asked was “what do think of the Ryan pick?” I said I was thrilled she said “me too, I like Rubio but I REALLY like Ryan”. That’s one senior who’s not afraid of his Medicare plan.
Obamacare will destroy Medicare.
They already stole 700 Billion dollars from it, and they try to tell Seniors that doesn’t hurt? Seniors are not stupid, they can see through a liar.
-—— they were not able to dislodge seniors in Florida.-——
****
Seniors in Florida, whether lifelong ‘whitecollar’ Republicans or lifelong Democrat union workers, are people who were careful enough with their money to be able to provide for a pleasant retirement location. They are interested in sound fiscal practice for our country for their grandchildren, as well as themselves.
So what do the DNC media do? They report that Ryan went to the *Republican* Villages to give his speech.
“That’s one senior who’s not afraid of his Medicare plan.”
Unfortunately, my mother said she heard that Ryan is going to take away medicare. My sister is a lib, and she got to her first. I am trying to undo the brainwashing now.
The Summer of Recovery is now, as long as Obama loses.
My husband and I are are both over 65 as are most of our friends. Our top priority is to see Obama GONE!
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