According to Mark Hemingway, Paul Ryan is "The Natural." Ryan wowed 'em in Lakewood, Colorado.
Having won over the crowd with pleasantries, Ryan imperceptibly worked his speech to a crescendo. The famous wonk wisely didn't stump on intricacies of, say, the Wyden-Ryan Medicare reform proposals. He made a series of moral arguments:
Guess what? Government doesn't regulate happiness, government doesn't define your happiness—you define it for yourself. That's how we do it in America.
What we are offering is a very clear contrast, a very clear choice. What kind of country do you want to have? What kind of people do you want to be? We want that American idea, that opportunity society with a safety net that's there to help people can't help themselves, that's there to help people get back on their feet who are struggling.But it's the opportunity society, the American ideal, where you can meet your potential, nothing is stopping you from meeting your destiny. Our job is to get the barriers out of your way, it's not to look at people who are working hard, who are succeeding, with resentment. It's to say, 'here's how to get things done, we want more people to be successful, because if more people are successful, America grows and we create jobs."
At that point, the crowd in the Lakewood High School gymnasium cut him off, pounded the bleachers, and offered a full 22 seconds of applause. But they weren't done yet—an older man in the crowd stood up, pointed at Ryan and screamed "Hey look, no teleprompter!" The crowd roared in approval, not because it was gratuitous swipe at the president, but because they were so grateful that Ryan was providing not just competing policy vision to Obama, but a substantive rhetorical alternative. And they clearly liked what they were hearing. [My emphasis above.]
With Romney polling at over 40% among the 18-29 crowd and aggressively going after the Hispanic vote, I'll be very surprised if November is not another blowout like 2010.
Lest we forget...
Latest studies show that "happiness" ceases to meaningfully increase after earning(fill in the blank)dollars per annum.
Therefore, anything "extra" will be confiscated to provide "happiness" for otherwise "under performers". Oh, and um...Union Labor wage/"ethic" mandated infrastructure, otherwise deemed essential.
BTW, what exactly does "Hispanic" imply these days? Spanish/Portugese? Mexican? Centeral/South America? Cuban? "Other" island, ESL(any of several variations of Spanish)-phile?
Where exactly do the hyphen-qualifiers go for this subset-American citizen voter profile? Inquireing minds want to know!
Posted by: CaptDMO | August 16, 2012 at 11:02 PM
“Palin bounce has Democrats off balance” — Los Angeles Times, Sept. 10, 2008
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/10/nation/na-palineffect10
“With Palin at His Side, McCain Finds Energized Crowds” — New York Times, Sept. 10, 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/us/politics/11mccain.html?_r=1
“McCain-Palin Campaign ‘Chemistry’ Energizes Republican Crowds” — Bloomberg, Sept. 9, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=afOLD3AbOUsY&refer=home
“Panic Time for Obama …” — Scared Monkeys, Sept. 7, 2008
http://scaredmonkeys.com/2008/09/07/panic-time-for-obama-mccainpalin-gets-bounce-and-poll-trending-in-their-favor-gallup-zogby/
“Still bouncing: New Gallup gives McCain five-point lead over Obama” — Hot Air, Sept. 8, 2008
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/09/08/still-bouncing-new-gallup-gives-mccain-five-point-lead-over-obama/
May I assume that you bought into this silliness as well?
Posted by: MR | August 17, 2012 at 06:36 PM
Yeah, but. Have you noticed what Sarah's been up to lately?
Posted by: Tom Bowler | August 19, 2012 at 08:38 AM