Alien Space Bats wrote:My suspicion is that Ryan will simply shake the "Etch-a-Sketch" right along with Romney. In a way, he's already been doing this: He's been goinf around saying, in essence, "Governor Romney has his own plan, his own ideas, his own proposals, and whatever I may have said I want, in legislation and in my speeches, is completely and totally inoperative."
IOW, it's going to be exactly like the October 3rd debate: Whatever record the Romney-Ryan ticket may have on the issues no longer exists. Romney and Ryan don't want to kill Medicare, they wants to save it; it's the Democrats who are killing Medicare. Romney and Ryan aren't against banking sector regulation, or environmental regulation, or any other kind of regulation - they want to make it better, that's all. Romney and Ryan aren't going to trim the social safety net; they're just going to stop the Democrats from turning it into a hammock. That's how it's going to go, and anything either Romney or Ryan has said that might contradict this narrative will effectively be, to use Gandalf's pithy retort to Saruman, "unsaid". Per Colbert, put the "Etch-a-Sketch" in the paint can, shake it vigorously, and out comes a fluffy bunny.
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In a way, lying about your agenda and your record is a kind of rope-a-dope; in fact, it's probably a very effective kind of rope-a-dope. It forces the other campaign to come out and call you a liar, which almost every political consultant urges his team not to do.
Were I on Biden's team, I wouldn't worry about gaffes as much as everybody seems to think they have to; Biden is just not anywhere near as gaffe-prone as people think he is. I'd be expecting Ryan to disavow his past record and to recast Romney was the champion of ice cream and sparkle ponies for everyone, and so I'd flat out patronize him. "You have a reputation as a straight shooter, Paul. It's got to pain you to have to have to set it aside on behalf of someone who rewrites reality as often as Mitt Romney does... Look, Paul, I know how much Mitt wants the world to believe that he has policies of his own and that his choosing you for his running mate is not an endorsement of your policies. But back in August, when he was trying to rally the Republican base, he wanted them to believe the exact opposite; he wanted his own Party to believe that he chose you exactly because of your policies. The thing is, he can't have it both ways: He can't tell his own Party that he supports everything you believe in and then turn around and tell the country he doesn't support anything you believe in; those two things can't both be true at once. So he's either lying to the whole of his own Party when he claims to be a 'severe conservative' and endorses all your policies, or he's lying to the rest of us when he says that he doesn't. Which is it?"
If I were Biden, I'd get that line out early and then whipsaw Ryan for the rest of the night. On every issue, I'd talk about Ryan's record or his statements on the issue, only to make Ryan disavow them in favor of Romney's softer hues - and then I'd patronize Ryan as the poor schmuck who's got to take a bullet for his liar of a boss. "Obviously, in picking you, he wanted Republicans to see him as agreeing with you - but now you're here tonight telling the rest of us he believes something different. It's the same story: Mitt Romney's the political equivalent of MasterCard: He's 'everywhere you want him to be'. He's a demagogue who panders for votes by trying to be all things to all people, so we'll all like him and vote for him. His political strategy is like George Bush's educational strategy: 'No vote left behind'."
And then, towards the end of the night, I'd have Biden ignore Ryan and go straight after Romney. Having pointed out how his position has changed on every single issue there is ("There's not a policy position in America in the last 20 years where Mitt Romney hasn't come out on both sides of that issue"), I'd have Biden summarize by declaring Romney fundamentally untrustworthy: "A man who stands on both sides of every issue is a man who doesn't stand for anything at all. A man who talks out of both sides of his mouth is a man who can't be trusted. And a man who's afraid to tell us what he really thinks - or show us his taxes even when he claims to have paid every dime he owes - is a many with no courage, no backbone. A man like that's a loose cannon, because no one can say what he'll do with power. He's the guy who says, 'Trust me' without ever having established himself as trustworthy, and he's the guy who'll be a complete loose cannon once he comes to power. America - the world - can't afford to have a coward, a liar, a hypocrite, a demagogue, or a loose cannon in the White Hose - and we certainly can't afford to have someone there who's all those things wrapped into one."
In short, Ryan shouldn't be the target; Romney should be the target. Ryan should only be used as contrast and as a springboard to get at Romney and tear him apart, with Biden making certain along the way that the public sees Ryan as some poor bastard who's been roped into defending a man he really doesn't believe in or support. That's how Biden can do the maximum possible amount of political damage to Mitt Romney on Thursday night.
Well said. Biden could take that line of Ted Kennedy's ... "I'm pro-choice. Mitt Romney is multiple choice" ... and work it all night.
As for the President, he should take Jed Bartlet's advice and learn three simple words: "Governor, you're lying." That's all. Romney lied his way through that debate and neither the President nor the "moderator" called him on any of it. Even the NFL replacement refs were face-palming Lehrer's performance.
