he has hardly ever worked at a "real" job in his life

Other than working for the federal government and his family's construction business (largely built on government road contracts), he worked for Oscar Mayer one summer and even got to drive the Weinermobile a time or two!

It behooves all of us fighting the bulge too to remember that when he was in high school, when his father died, Ryan worked nights at McDonalds, that paragon of American value and ambition:



Personally, when I saw the two of them standing together on the platform this week, I was elated because it was so repellant - two white straight boys, all costumed up and looking spiffy. Romney and Ryan harken back to the "good old days", yes? Good for who would be the question - good for those of diversity, good for women, good for the planet? The R&R ticket is hardly one for rest and relaxation though it subliminally spins that tall tale.

-Debra

Personally, when I saw the two of them standing together on the platform this week, I was elated because it was so repellant - two white straight boys, all costumed up and looking spiffy. Romney and Ryan harken back to the "good old days", yes? Good for who would be the question - good for those of diversity, good for women, good for the planet? The R&R ticket is hardly one for rest and relaxation though it subliminally spins that tall tale.

My main thought was "Why is Ryan wearing his daddy's coat?" Doesn't it look two sizes too big?

he has hardly ever worked at a "real" job in his life

Other than working for the federal government and his family's construction business (largely built on government road contracts), he worked for Oscar Mayer one summer and even got to drive the Weinermobile a time or two!

He's also worked at McDonald's.

he has hardly ever worked at a "real" job in his life

Other than working for the federal government and his family's construction business (largely built on government road contracts), he worked for Oscar Mayer one summer and even got to drive the Weinermobile a time or two!

He's also worked at McDonald's.

Which both jobs show in a myraid of ways both implicit and explicit the shoring up of current unhealthy structures for modern society. He wants to dismantle all social programs and have his dog with catsup too. hmmmpfff - there's nothing wrong with making a living and trying to get ahead but Ryan's facination with fast food and pushing funny big carcinogens on an unsuspecting public seems really out of step and out of touch. Obviously, he wants to be the big weiner - I think he is the big weiner!! :laugh:



-Debra

I love all the attacks on Ryan for not having a "real job." And the clown in the White House had a real job ... when?

Liberals rail on Romney for actually having a job and earning a lot of money, but Ryan is to be ridiculed for being elected to Congress (in a Democratic district) at the age of 28 and again every 2 years after that.

Well he's not bad looking for a spoilt rich kid, but he still needs to go back to driving the weinermobile and leave politics for people who have actually had to work for a living.

Really? Because that's SO many of our elected representatives.

Exactly, my thought... Honestly, a large portion of them are spoilt rich kids.... or if they weren't handed the silver spoon as children, they sure did get it as an adult and forgot (whether willfully or just coincidentally along the way, I don't know) what it was like to have to work for a living. Personally, I don't believe ANY politician... particularly those going for the highest offices in the land... that states they "know what it's like" and they "have America's best interests at heart"... am I being cynical... perhaps...

He's more than the idealogue. He's generally respected on both sides of the partisan divide (at least at the governemental level, certainly not at the media level) as a serious guy with considered positions and serious plans for a different direction fiscally for the country than the current administration. Many people disagree with that plan, but he's not just calling for the status quo.

He's seen actually as a bit of policy wonk and his positions economicalky are not particularly those of the Republican orthodoxy, per se, but more of the think tanks and conservative intelligensia. But he's not parroting some party-line, he's the guy who developed the line as far as the economy goes on the right by writing the so-called Ryan Budget which would slash federal entitlement funding which he believes is unsustainable over the long-term.

His social positions are...well...he's Catholic and his voting on the issues reflects that. Anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-hate crime, anti-stimulus (for the most part, there were exceptions).

Ostensibly he was chosen by Romney to solidify the party behind Romney. The fact that Roney needed to solidify the party even after winning the nomination in a year where the sitting president is so despised by the opposition that many do not even recognize or accept that he is an American citizen kinda speaks to his chances in the fall.

This is a succint summary.

As an Ayn Rand-loving Libertarian who was planning to vote for the Libertarian party in the presidential elections, I have to say that Ryan's economic stances strengthen the ticket to independents like me.

The other thing I like about him is that while he votes with the GOP majority on social issues, that's not his hill to die on, he is much more focused on making government smaller and pushing work and money into private businesses.

Also, it's not like conservatives want to take away Medicare and Social Security altogether with no alternative: they propose alternatives to give people across the board opportunity to invest for their own retirements, and propose moving failing government entities into private businesses that can make them profitable again.

LOVE this from the PP: Liberals rail on Romney for actually having a job and earning a lot of money, but Ryan is to be ridiculed for being elected to Congress (in a Democratic district) at the age of 28 and again every 2 years after that.

Dammit, treetop! Get outta my head! I had that half typed! Although to be fair, I would have said "they" because I am a God-fearin' straight white male member of the vast right wing conspiracy (VRWC).

Fear not, jq2122. These heathen commies survived Dubya - aka Chmipy McBush*tler - just like we - the God fearing residents of Rock Ridge - and the country, will survive that islamist Kenyan community organizin' 'Merica hatin' jug-eared commie.

It's only four more years...after this one that is. And then at least 4 of Hillary. Maybe, just maybe, the GOP will ahve managed to drag itself into the 20th century by then and nominate someone who has a reasonable shot at getting elected and who represents more than the narrowest of narrow minorioties (i.e. the rapidly shrinking GOP so-con base) instead of dithering madly over fools and then defaulting to the guy whose turn it's perceived to be.

Will you marry me?

LOVE this from the PP: Liberals rail on Romney for actually having a job and earning a lot of money, but Ryan is to be ridiculed for being elected to Congress (in a Democratic district) at the age of 28 and again every 2 years after that.

Actually Liberals rail on Romney for being an unethical prat in the job he did have, as opposed to simply having a job he was successful at. Whether or not he was said prat is another debate altogether.

Also, suggesting that republicans want to replace Medicare with a useful program is like burning someone's house down and then giving them a cozy cardboard box to live in.

Here's my take on a few things. I don't follow the news and politics as closely as I used too, but I am probably still more tuned in than most of my friends, but I get annoyed when they automatically hated the guy because he was labelled "a conservative" with out knowing much. I'm not saying that is happening in the debate, because I have been around enough to know that usually people have actual knowlege of a subject. I just get annoyed at the two party system.

But here is what I find interesting. Ryan is known as a big time conservative from what I have gathered, social and fiscal. Could it be that the Republicans find Obama so weak that they think they can maybe get a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaar right person into office? Because that is the only thing that makes sense to me. Romeny picking an arch conservative to bolster his pouplarity with the far right is preposterous. They hate Obama so bad that if a wild mongoose had won the nomination for the republicans, they would vote for him. And I don't see how the pick of Ryan bolsters him with Independents either, so what crowd are they looking to target? It was just a confusing pick for me because, call me cynical, I highly doubt that Romney picked him based on merit ( not knocking repubs, both parties do it), but based on what votes he brings to the table. So how does Ryan help Romney win?

But I must say this....gorgeous ticket. If I were gay, I would want to run my fingers through both of these guys manes of beautiful hair. Is their a way we can elect just Romey and Ryan's hair?

Adrian, don't discount the idea that Romney, Mittens to his friends and Willard to his enemies, was pushed into this by a very vocal conservative media horde demanding his bonifides. I mean let's face it, it has never taken much to push Romney one way or another. He's the kinda guy who's really been on both sides of pretty much every issue known to man - seriously, I bet you could find video clip somewhere of Romney hedging his bets on the sun rising in the East. And the drumbeat to pick Ryan and shore up his right side was pretty strong from a lot of corners of the right.

How does he help him win? He really doesn't. Unless the GOP is able to sell seniors on the idea that Ryan's plan, which ostensibly doesn't touch social security and medicare for those currently 55 and over, is a better deal for them than Obamacare and that somehow the R's (I love that I can tyope this and that it refers to the nominee his veep AND the party all in one fell swoop!) will save them from the evil President who wants to make them all into soylent green paid for when he seizes the retirement accounts of every private business and cvonverts them to a government fund. But honestly, if they can make a case to retirees and the over-55 crowd that Ryan's plan is beter for them than what the President plans - DEATH PANELS! - then he helps in Florida and other retirement states.

I think that many on the right - particularly those in positions of power and influence - are of the deluded view that this race is a walk in the park and that they could run the rotted corpses of Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms and win in a landslide. They are wrong, of course, but good luck convincing them of that.

There is also a theory popular in arch conservative circles that Romney can win an election about big issues but would lose one about smaller issues, so the idea behind the Ryan pick could have been that this makes the election one about the future direction of America in broad strokes. I'd love to meet the genius who thinks the GOP can win on that since they are running as the party of "we're going to take that away from you."

Also, don't undersestimate Romney's unpopularity with the GOP. His ceiling has always been 25%. he never got above it in the priomaries and he doesn't inspire ANYBODY on the right. But then no one really did. Which is how we ended up with Mittens in the first place.

I have been using the same Cramps album cover for six years when talking about Mittens:


But then, I wanted Huntsman so WTF do I know?