Ryan's budget is 'albatross' for GOP candidates, pollster says

Democratic pollster Mark Mellman (pictured) predicts that Paul Ryan's budget will be "an albatross around the necks of Republicans across the country."

"In almost every poll we do, in almost every state, in almost every congressional district where we poll, people's support for the Ryan plan is one of the most compelling reasons to vote against them," Mellman said.

Mellman added that the proposed changes to Medicare would be the most problematic for Republicans.

Mellman, a prominent national pollster, spoke at a WisPolitics.com luncheon in Madison.

Read more here.

' Paul Ryan’s lack of popularity means he’s popular' - Just ask CNN

Hotspyer:

Remember how hard Rep. Paul Ryan tried to spin his disastrous budget with its scheme to end Medicare? Back during the spring recess, he insisted that the constituents booing him at his town meetings loooooved his Medicare plan, saying the “crowds are overwhelmingly supportive.”

When that didn’t really work, he shifted his spin saying that, really, the plan wasn’t unpopular, it was just misunderstood. People would love it, really, once the Republicans figured out a way to talk about it that didn’t terrify people.

Meanwhile, there were the polls. Like this PPP poll done in June in North Carolina, finding that voters were opposed to the plan by an almost 2:1 margin. In North Carolina. There are any number of polls demonstrating just how unpopular it is.

Undaunted, Ryan has kept up his happy talk, and finally found a buyer. Check out the headline from CNN’s Gloria Borger and Kevin Bohn: “Paul Ryan: Popular by pushing the unpopular.”

More here.

Is Paul Ryan drinking his own bath water?

That's an intriguing question, asked by Richard K. Barry on The Reaction blog:

I used to work with a very experienced campaign manager, who had a colorful term to describe the phenomenon of politicians or their surrogates actually believing the spin they put on things. This isn't about making a case for something you truly think would be good policy, despite the fact that most don't agree with you.

It's about taking a position that has limited support and believing that the majority must be with you simply because you've fallen in love with your own reasoning or, perhaps, because those in closest proximity are always telling you how right you are.

He used to say, "let's be careful not to drink our own bath water."

I thought of this when I read Greg Sargent's post recently about Paul Ryan being in total denial about how unpopular his Medicare plan is.

More here.

Washington Post column says Ryan in "Total Denial" about his plan's unpopularity

Old news to us Wisconsinites, but glad to see a Post columnist matching up Ryan's love for his Medicare plan with multiple polls showing the public's rejection of same - - so finding Ryan guilty of a politiflub.

Here's what Greg Sargent says:

If Paul Ryan really believes what he said about his Medicare plan in this interview with a local Wisconsin TV station, then he is in total denial about how unpopular his proposal really is — and how much of a jam it created for his fellow Republicans:

“Those polls don’t describe it very well. When the plan is described accurately, it actually polls very well,” Ryan claims.

Hmm, or maybe this is just false. [Then Sargent runs through the evidence.]

I put it up on my blog.