John Fund at The National Review makes the argument and it’s a good one. The choice of Ryan for the VP slot means that the Obama-Fuhrer and his minions will be forced onto defensive ground in that they will have to discuss their actual record. And they don’t have a good record on which to run. Rush talked about this issue on his program some time back and pointed to James Carville as an example of a Democrat who is looking at the situation in a realistic way. Carville knows that Obama has to distract from the economy if he is to have a prayer of winning. Ryan makes that far more difficult.
Here is a snip from John Fund;
Ryan was judged to have already had the better of President Obama in televised exchanges on Obamacare. His debate with Joe Biden this October might well be remembered as cruel and unusual punishment for dim vice presidents. Recall that Sarah Palin fought a much more engaged Joe Biden to a draw in their 2008 vice-presidential debate.
Six, as Democratic consultant Joe Trippi acknowledged today on Fox News, Ryan will bring in a flood of donations from overjoyed conservatives and tea-party members. Romney had a problem with energizing the GOP base. That problem is now solved, and that will make it easier to pump up conservative turnout.
Democrats will no doubt try to make Paul Ryan into a younger version of the devil they’ve tried to paint Mitt Romney as. But they should worry about fighting a campaign on fundamental issues in a weak economy. That’s precisely how Jimmy Carter, the last Democratic president to run for reelection during hard times, wound up losing so badly that it not only cost Democrats control of the U.S. Senate but damaging the liberal brand for years afterwards.
In fact, Carville says that Obama, quote “will fail,” unquote if he talks about economic growth. They “claim that the Obama campaign must ‘move to a new narrative’ in order to be successful in November. … The current campaign is focused on success in the economic recovery, but Carville’s group says the strategy is ‘wrong’ and ‘will fail.’ The only reason Obama is keeping up in the campaign is because voters perceive Romney as ‘out of touch with ordinary people.'”
That’s the only thing, they say, that’s keeping Obama alive. If Romney’s able to bridge that gap and become more like a regular guy to people, it’s over for Obama. And I don’t care what… Dana Milbank has a column in the Washington Post today, “Pileup at the White House,” and it’s devastating. It’s just more of the same. People in the media and on the Democrat side of the aisle are coming right up against the reality here that this guy can lose.
They have been under the impression that his reelection was a slam dunk. It didn’t matter what any economic details were. It didn’t matter what polling data said. It was automatic. Obama was gonna be reelected, for all the various reasons and obvious ones. First black president. History continues! Smartest guy in the room. History continues! Just a fait accompli. And you and I, living in Realville, have known since the stimulus and then health care, that if this country is the same country we grew up in, he’s toast.
