Swallow Hard, Romney Picks Paul Ryan

I’m voting for Mitt Romney.  Why, considering he was never my first choice?  Because as I continue to tell people it’s not “Obama vs. Romney”  it is “Obama vs. NOT Obama” as far as I’m concerned.  But the addition of Paul Ryan to the ticket has, quite frankly, made my vote that much harder to swallow.

Oh, I know.  Paul Ryan is a staunch advocate against Obamacare.  He is a tough talker when it comes to balancing the budget.  He gets a lot of attention for his budget plan which slightly appeals to the TEA party types, but not enough to convince people like Justin Amash.  But I don’t like Ryan’s approach and I think the Obama camp has to be giving it high fives this morning for what the Ryan pick has just handed them as a campaign weapon.

Just look at what the Weekly Standard said about this issue only a few days ago:

In an interview on March 22, two weeks before Mitt Romney would win the Wisconsin primary and effectively end the race for the Republican nomination, Milwaukee talk radio host Charlie Sykes asked about his embrace of Paul Ryan’s budget.

Sykes said to Romney. “You have embraced that plan. You’ve endorsed that plan. The Democrats think that the Republicans have handed them a weapon because they’re now going to say that you conservative Republicans, you want to balance the budget on the backs of the frail, the elderly and the poor. How will you respond to that?”

Last weekend, Politico reported: “A senior Romney adviser told the traveling press corps late last week that Romney still does not agree with the Medicare cuts in the Ryan budget, a fact that would be explored at length if the Wisconsin congressman were to be on the ticket. He would end up discussing that budget plan rather frequently, a fight Democrats would be eager for.” And, on Wednesday, a second article in Politico quoted Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio saying that while there were positives and negatives to choosing Ryan, “Romney has been very careful not to embrace the Medicare cuts in the Ryan budget.”

These claims are just wrong. Romney has praised Ryan’s budget without qualification. Furthermore, Romney’s Medicare reform proposal is almost identical to the Ryan-Wyden plan, the latest version of Medicare reform from Ryan. Don’t take our word for it. Here is one rather authoritative analysis of Romney’s proposal, written in response to the question: “How is this different from the Ryan plan?” The answer: “Shortly after Mitt presented the proposal described here, Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator Ron Wyden introduced a bipartisan proposal that almost precisely mirror’s Mitt’s ideas.” That comes from the Romney for President website. Romney’s “senior adviser” might give it a look.

The Ryan budget will be at the center of the 2012 election no matter whom Romney picks. Democratic strategist Joe Trippi told The Weekly Standard that his party plans to spend much of October talking about the Ryan budget. Paul Begala, who is advising Priorities USA, the pro-Obama super PAC, told the Huffington Post the same thing. This should surprise no one. Democrats have for months been calling Romney’s plan the “Romney-Ryan” budget in their talking points. And Democratic candidates across the country have been demagoguing the Ryan budget for two years.

I have openly opposed the Ryan budget plan to the extent that it calls for cutting “entitlements” such as social security and medicare.  Why?  Because dammit we are entitled to those benefits not as some kind of government hand out, but because we paid for them!  We are entitled to receive those benefits because we were forced to pay taxes into those programs on the promise that they would be there for our retirement.

Picking Ryan has just handed Obama a huge wedge to drive between Romney and the boomers.

Maybe Romney can find a way to patch this problem, but why spend the last few laps of your campaign fixing a flat when you should be putting the pedal to the metal?

I’ve voting for Romney, but swallowing hard over Ryan.