A few words on Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick, Paul Ryan: the big-time budget guru of the G.O.P. Everyone keeps calling it a "bold choice." Yeah, well maybe, but you know bold is not always synonymous with good.
Whiskey for breakfast is a bold choice. Spun glass underwear is bold. Four-head dragon tattoos. Passing an 18-wheeler on a blind curve going 80 in the rain – incredibly bold. Just not that necessarily smart.
It's generally assumed the major reason for choosing the Wisconsin congressman was to energize the base. And that's a slam dunk. But which base? Republicans, yeah definitely. Haven't seen them this excited since John McCain hooked up with the governor of Alaska four years ago.
On the other side, Democrats are salivating so hard they should be wearing bibs to protect their $5,000 suits. It took less than an hour before attacking Ryan's budget bill, which replaces Medicare with vouchers. But then the Romney campaign accused Obama of taking $700 billion from Medicare. So brace yourself for an echoing refrain of: "You're killing Medicare," "No, youre' killing Medicare." Rinse and repeat.
Allegations have arisen that while Ryan maintained a steadfast opposition to the stimulus bill, he wrote four letters to the Secretary of Energy praising stimulus programs and requesting funds for his district. A little bit of flip for Mitt the flop?
Ryan doesn't do much to help the Ritchie Rich thing. In March, he amended his financial disclosure statement because he forgot to include a $5 million trust account. And who among us hasn't done that?
This campaign arc better start rising soon, or Romney might be forced to actually release his tax returns just to change the conversation.
The opinions of Will Durst do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Crosscurrents or KALW.
