this is the kind of debates I'd like to watch. Paul Ryan explaining the cost of Obamacare to Barry last fall.
You're not upset about political adds - really. In the post to tell me not to care about political adds, you spent 75% of the post complaining about political adds. And some of them were from 8 years ago. Good post, you made your point.
A look at Paul Ryan's voting record tells the whole story: During the Bush Administration Paul Ryan voted for the $700 billion TARP bailout, voted for the Auto Bailout months later, voted for an expansion of Medicare by voting for part D, voted for the 2005 transportation bill that included the infamous Bridget to Nowhere and supported the governments intervention into the Terry Schiavo case in 2005. Considering all of these votes it is hard to consider Paul Ryan a fiscal conservative or as being anti-government intervention. I supported the bailouts because I believed, and still do, that they were a necessary evil. But Paul Ryan is now running against those very votes, trying to put the blame for those entirely on the shoulders of President Obama, when in all actuality Ryan helped to create the mess he now laments. It appears that Mr. Ryan became a "fiscal conservative" when Obama took office. He surely would have never claimed that title during the Bush years because he was a party hack. All of this talk about him going his own way, being his own man, etc. is bull shit. Don't think for one second that the dems will not hammer him on these votes time after time. It's already happening and so far I have not been impressed with his answers.
One of the biggest issues for moderates and most Americans is the budget deficit for which Ryan is the perfect choice to fix. As a self proclaimed moderate and big Clinton supporter you should be a huge Ryan supporter. A video of former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles began circulating in conservative news outlets today. In the clip, the Democratic co-chair of President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform gives high praises to Paul Ryan's budget plan. "He is honest, he is straightforward, he is sincere. And the budget he came forward with is just like Paul Ryan. It is a sensible, straightforward, honest, serious budget and it cut the budget deficit just like we did by four trillion dollars." http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/erskine-bowles-praises-paul-ryan-budget-plan-video-003642883.html
I don't actually think the budget deficit is the moderates biggest issue by a long shot. Ryan's "perfection" is certainly subjective and partisan. Clinton was a moderate democrat and a populist. Ryan is neither. If you are counting on Ryan swinging the Clintonians, you are going to be disappointed.
Funny, we have one lib saying Ryan is too conservative, and one lib saying he isn't a conservative at all.
