Sunday, November 25, 2012

Paul Ryan's Final Day Campaigning!

The Onion covered Paul Ryan's final day campaigning as a vice presidential candidate.   It seems like he fit in everything he believes in! 


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Quick Reminder!

Amidst all of the craziness of the presidential election, Paul Krugman had a quick reminder for all of us:

So now that the Unperson/Ryan ticket has lost, Republicans are clearly expecting Paul Ryan to move right back into his previous role as Washington’s favorite Serious, Honest Conservative.
He might get away with it; but I hope not.

The fact is that Ryan is and always was a fraud. His plan never added up; it was never, contrary to what people who should know better asserted, “scored” by the CBO. What he actually offered was a plan to hurt the poor and reward the rich, actually increasing the deficit along the way, plus magic asterisks that supposedly reduced the debt by means unspecified.

His genius, if you can all it that, was in realizing that there was a role — as I said, that of Honest, Serious Conservative — that self-proclaimed centrists desperately wanted to see filled, so that they could demonstrate their bipartisanship by lavishing praise on the holder of that position. So Ryan did his best to impersonate a budget wonk. It wasn’t a very good impersonation — in fact, he’s pretty bad at budget math. But the “centrists” saw what they wanted to see.

Ryan can’t be ignored, since his party does retain blocking power, and he chairs an important committee. But if he must be dealt with, it should be with no illusions. Fool me once …

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Paul Ryan - Ignorance on Display!

Madison CBS reporter Jessica Arp, was able to get the first interview with failed VP candidate Paul Ryan:





Some highlights and interpretations:

* "I think the surprise was some of the turnout, especially in urban areas, which gave President Obama the big margin to win this race," said Ryan,(meaning - we were surprised that the people of color actually voted and were able to vote. They will not make that mistake again!)

* "Mitt didn't pick me for a certain state, he picked me for issues, for governing, for taking on the debt crisis," Ryan said. "We had hoped to win Wisconsin, fought hard for Wisconsin. We cut the president's lead in half, but nevertheless it wasn't enough." (Paul Ryan spent the better part of the last two weeks in WI trying to win and ended up getting beat by 7 points. Paul is on a dont blame me - ditch personal responsibility tour and this was the first stop. There is a reason he did not run for Senate in Herb Kohl's seat.)

* "We ran a campaign on big ideas" Paul Ryan - (Although he still hasnt told us the big ideas that he ran on!)

* "we clearly did not lose the election on the issues, especially Medicare" Paul Ryan (Tell that to the voters of Florida).

* "My dad always said you are part of the problem or part of the solution. I feel its my job to be part of the solution." Paul Ryan (wow did you let your dad down)

* "as you know, the House republicans, we have offered budget after budget. We have offered specific plans to prevent the fiscal cliff. We have not seen any leadership from the President on that. Yet." Paul Ryan. (President Obama SPECIFICALLY campaigned against the Paul ryan budgets and the American people spoke LOUD AND CLEAR).

* "Ryan said twenty times a day he had to hand sanitize" Jessica Arp. (the King is disgusted when he has to associate with the Plebes) Cross posted @ Cogdis.

Ryan's Last Hurrah?




No, Paul Ryan is not sitting alone in a movie theater watching Atlas Shrugged, Part 2, getting his popcorn salty with bitter tears of defeat. He's out hunting (literally)... and looking for revenge and couldn't care less that half the pundits in DC blame his extremism for Romney's loss and for the thrashing the GOP took in congressional races. [He claims it wasn't the ideas he culled from Ayn Rand's childish novels that cost the GOP the election but too many colored people voting-- i.e, what he terms "the takers" rather than "the makers."] And believe me, Wall Street still has high-- very high-- hopes for him and his delusional admirers are as firmly in his camp as ever.

This was the main page Blue America used to raise money for House candidates this cycle but it was far from the only page. We had one I was especially fond of called Stop Paul Ryan... and that's a page that goes beyond candidates and cycles. That's a page about ending the political career of the biggest danger facing this country: Paul Ryan. I have every reason to believe Rob Zerban will run against him in 2014. Rob did better than anyone has ever done against Ryan and even beat him in his hometown of Janesville. Rob drew 157,721 votes (43.4%) to Ryan's 199,715 (54.9%). The DCCC adamantly refused to help Zerban and although he met every criterion they threw his way in the hopes of eliminating him, Steve Israel just kept pumping money into hopeless Blue Dog races in districts where no Democrat will win and ignored Zerban. One of the lies the DCCC spouts is that they will target Republicans who fall below 55% in the previous election. That will be the case with Ryan in 2014.

But I have no doubt Steve Israel will never betray his Wall Street donors (who are the same as Ryan's Wall Street donors) by targeting Ryan. It just will.not.happen-- not while Steve Israel is chairman of the DCCC. Israel went so far as to personally call big Democratic donors and demand they not contribute to Zerban's campaign. We're keeping that Stop Paul Ryan page open and I urge you to consider giving regularly-- or at least whenever Ryan does something bad-- which will amount to even more than regularly. This cycle, the money that was contributed on that page to the Blue America PAC went directly into several billboard campaigns, a Super Bowl radio ad and into over two dozen newspaper ads, mostly in Rock County where Zerban beat Ryan 20,902 (52%) to 18,826 (46%). Zerban also won Kenosha County by the same margin.

As in many of the races Blue America worked hardest on, what we built will continue to grow in southeast Wisconsin. And Ryan's day of reckoning draws closer and closer. The GOP rules dictate that he has to leave his seat as chair of the House Budget Committee. There's no chance that will happen. The man who pushed through the TARP bailout for Bush, the hero of the ignorant teabaggers, will be granted an exemption so he can continue working on an agenda that is so destructive to the imbeciles who most strongly and noisily support him.


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Ryan Gripes About Urban Voters; Does That Include Janesville?

Ryan says urban voters - - today's code for "those people" - - cost him the election.

So how does he explain that he and Mitt lost Janesville by 25 points?

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Political Life just got tougher for Paul Ryan

Rep. Paul Ryan can no longer hide behind his superficial "local boy" image. He's been found out; he lies and isn't the wonk we thought he was. The media spotlight revealed a huckster, who's convention speech will forever be remembered as the most dishonest in history.

His road map depends on job increases and decent pay, two shaky area's that has seen some dramatic ups and downs. If that's what makes Ryan's vision work, and drives his base of support, then voters are amazingly naive or just plain stupid.

Kenosha's Rob Zerban put together an effective campaign, one I hope he repeats in a few years. He's crashed Ryan's gate and if given a chance to debate him, would trash Ryan's purely unworkable ideological budget. The press oddly thinks Ryan is more powerful than ever. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 Here's Sly in the Morning with John Nichols talking about a Zerban press release detailing the final vote counts in Ryan's home town.

  

Ryan's 11-point victory Tuesday was down nearly 20 points from his previous seven wins in Wisconsin's 1st Congressional DistrictA Smart Politics review of Wisconsin election data finds Paul Ryan won his narrowest ever congressional contest in 2012 - nearly 20 points closer than his average victory margin during his previous seven wins since 1998.

Representative Ryan defeated Democrat Rob Zerban by just 11.5 points - down from 29.3 points four years ago when Obama won Wisconsin by double digits.

Paul Ryan's Symbolism!

This from Rob Zerban:


I am thrilled that the American people have voted tonight for four more years of progress — for a President who wants to expand the American Dream, open new doors of opportunity, and secure a strong future for middle-class families across our country. Tonight, that should give us all cause for celebration.
And in the Senate, we’re going to have a tremendous, progressive champion in Tammy Baldwin!
I’m disappointed to tell you that we didn’t prevail tonight in this individual election against Paul Ryan. But I am so proud of the race we ran and all that we’ve accomplished.

When we first started this campaign, no one thought this district could be a real battleground. That we could force Ryan to dive deep into his warchest of special interest money. That we could hold Ryan accountable on his destructive Kill Medicare budget plan.

But we were determined. And bit by bit, our campaign grew from a ragtag group working out of my living room to a real, professional operation that gave our district hope, that for the first time in a long time, we could defeat Paul Ryan.

That was thanks to you, because our money wasn't coming in from Wall Street or corporate lobbyists. Instead, it was coming in from you. This campaign became a national grassroots movement powered by regular folks across the country, who believe in their own ability to change things for the better.

Our campaign was built by seniors on Social Security and Medicare, students on Pell Grants, and hard-working middle class families who chipped in $5 or $10 -- whatever they could to help us defeat Paul Ryan.  In fact, one number says it all: 96% of the contributions received by this campaign were less than $100 each

So we must be proud of this campaign and this movement we’ve built together. And we must not allow these efforts to have been in vain because the people of the First District deserve representation that belongs to them, not to the moneyed and powerful special interests. Because this fight was never about a single election or a single person. This campaign was about the middle class, working people, and the American Dream itself.

You have my word, I will remain a part of that fight.

Earlier tonight, I left a message for Paul Ryan to concede this election. But there is a grander, much larger battle ahead of us – and that battle, I do not concede.

Sincerely, thank you for all that you have done,
Rob


Paul Ryan just won the closest election of his career, and could not take the time to take the call from the person who represented them.   Looking at the numbers, Paul Ryan lost his hometown and his home county decidedly.   In fact, had the republicans not redistricted so unethically, and helped give Ryan a Waukesha padding, he would have lost his seat!   Yet in the end Paul Ryan thought so little of his opposition and opponent that he could not be bothered to take the call.    


Paul Ryan does not now, nor has he ever, represented the people of WI.  We lost a huge opportunity to make our state better and have the 1st Congressional District actually be represented in Congress by not electing Rob Zerban.    

Let's not make the same mistake in 2014!