Sunday, August 12, 2012

Romney/Ryan 'Homecoming' Rally Not In Ryan's Home Town Janesville; How Come?

The two Republican one-percenters in matching blue shirts - - that would be Mitt Romney, the quarter-billionaire, along side Veep pick and new campaign-trail buddy Paul Ryan - - are headed to Wisconsin today, but to deep, dark red Waukesha and not to Ryan's blue-collar home town Janesville for the candidates' "homecoming."

Well, you say, Waukesha County has more regular GOP voters than any in Wisconsin, and you can count on the City of Waukesha, formerly Spring City but now a County seat looking for a big fat federal water system earmark from Republican Congressman-for-life Jim Sensenbrenner to give those "R" fellas a rousing welcome.

But don't forget that Janesville's signature but shuttered GM and Parker Pen assembly plants don't exactly offer TV crews the kind of news-at-10 "B-roll" footage that the candidates' handlers are looking for.

And Janesville is where pesky print reporters might encounter everyday folk not caught up on their Ayn Rand, or entirely enamored with the Ryan 'budget,' and Romney's horseu elitism, or Medicare vouchers or cuts to social programs to fund more tax breaks for Paul and Mitt's allies over at ALEC and Americans for Prosperity.

So Waukesha - - or is it Earmark City? - - it is for Ryan's Veepstakes selection victory lap, while Janesville is kept in the background today - - though no doubt Ryan's new campaign biographers will craft some Morning in America images of home -  well, not his actual home, known as the Parker Mansion - - to boost a scripted, small town, Midwestern values, regular guy myth.

Cross-posted earlier today at The Political Environment.

1 comment:

  1. A fellow on Twitter suggested the rally was held in Waukesha because "Janesville does not have a venue that can hold the thousands of people attending." Which, considering Janesville has two city parks larger than the grounds of the Waukesha County Expo Center, would seem to strain credulity. It's possible the privately held Expo Center was better able to handle the security demands, but the challenge of securing a public park is hardly an insurmountable, as the Obama campaign demonstrated when they held a rally at Ida Lee Park in Leesburg, Virginia, in 2008.

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