Vulture/Voucher 2012*

*(shamelessly stolen from the intertoobz somewhere)

I've spent a couple days digesting the Ryan pick, not an appealing meal I'll tell you. This process has been complicated by a miserable summer cold (as though there's another sort - this one is particularly miserable) and my frank puzzlement at this pick.

  Look, I've paid attention and I've heard every sort of thing under the sun about why Multiple Mitt chose this guy and short of some sort of (not)homosexual attraction I don't get it. I've heard the "shore up the base" argument and if that had anything to do with it that campaign is beyond incompetent. To vote against the Muslim Kenyan Socialist Fascist Blah guy those idjits would line up to vote for a Cultist Unprincipled Anti-American Rich Prick... oh - that's what's going on already... Just to make sure, they've thrown the dogwhistles in favor of fire sirens of WELFARE!!! and a couple others for good measure. (Until 1978 the Church he's a bishop in was blatantly racist) The BASE is not a problem, despite their bitching.

I've heard about what a smart guy Ryan is, in the face of making budget policy out of stuff that flies in the face of all facts and only works a little bit if you use far-fetched assumptions. Maybe there is something smart in treating women as though they are chattel with them having a vote. Maybe voting for every BuchCo deficit exploding bill and then masquerading as a fiscal hawk is smart.  For pete's sake the nimrod is an Ayn Rand fanboy, and that's no mark of intellect anywhere out from under the covers with a flashlight.  Maybe I set the bar for intelligence a little high, but I've seen nothing that marks this guy as more special than an ability to not eat paste.

Ryan is supposed to be an accomplished pol, somebody with enough charisma to make up for the Rombot's distressing habit of eating the hard drive when presented with live human beings.  He has actually done pretty well with the FauxNews set, as though their viewers were undecided voters, as long as they stuck to script - the "I don't eat sweets" in response to their 42nd birthday cake offering probably offended some of their couch potatoes.  As far as political consquence is concerned, his ability to get two bills (one naming a Post Office) passed in 13 yrs is... well, underwhelming. 

There has been quite a bit of talk about how brave and bipartisan Ryan is, on the basis of they say so I'd guess.  Ryan's budget isn't new or brave, it is recycled Newt played to a friendly audience - outside the rest of the nation.  They've been passed by a House that knew that was all that would happen.  There is no cost to Ryan.

There had to be some strategy in R-money's head that led to Ryan.  You have to wonder if Mr Pierce isn't correct and that the move is do a Newt on the media.  You may remember that back in the day our favorite slimey amphibian was lauded as the Brave Idea Guy Of Republicanism by a really large chunk of what passes for journalists and pundits.  Talking point bullshit achieved the status of policy in the absence of any facts or logic supporting it - not very different from the crap Ryan has put forward.  Since there's no point in shooting for the base the idea must be that NPR listeners and David Brooks readers will take the "Idea Guy" theme seriously - getting traction with the educated upper-middle income; which would seem to indicate they're also low information voters.

The thing is that the Undecided Voter percentages are really low this year, I do mean really low.  The challenge is to get a handful of voters to look your way without losing any of the committed voters - made up of the base and those with their minds made up on some basis.  Given what is going on in the nation, the question you have to ask and answer is, "why haven't these people actually made up their minds?"  Ordinarily they're a pretty large cohort and they're not this time which means a lot of ordinary assumptions go out the window.  Are they the normally uninformed people or are they conflicted?  (not all, large enough percentages to count)  Conflicted people are looking for information, the uniformed will make a primarily emotional decision at the last moment.  That makes a difference.  If the reason for the small percentage is that the low information voters have already made an emotional decision - probably based on the economy - Mitt already has them in his column.  ("I don't know why this is broken and I don't care - time for a new guy at the top.")  If that is the case, Ryan is poison - information is his enemy.

Making this election about the economy (to the extent of getting rid of the guy at the top) and race and socialism was the best bet for the R-money bunch.  Now actual ideology and policy has been moved forward and I just don't see how either R-money or Ayn Ryan make that appealing. (the stereotyping nicknames are deliberate and indicative)  I'm sorry, I just don't get the Vulture/Voucher 2012 idea.