By It's already less than 80 days to the Nov. 6 presidential election and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has sealed his doom by selecting Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate.
Romney might have done just as well by selecting former Gov. Sarah Palin. Neither Ryan nor Palin have the chutzpah to make it across any finish line. Here's why.
Ryan is the controversial author of "Path to Prosperity," a treatise that was adopted by the Republican House in 2011 and again this year.
Ryan's plans call for balancing the budget by 2040 through deep cuts to virtually every social program, from Medicare to Medicaid to food stamps to Pell Grants for college students. The nation's seniors and the vast voting bloc that Romney constantly refers to as "the middle class" won't let him get away with it.
Ryan has proposed raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67 and capping spending on those who turn 65 after 2023. In the future, seniors would be offered a set amount with which to purchase private health insurance on newly created federal exchanges. The nation's seniors will drum him out of the ballpark on that one.
Perception plays a big role in how U.S. voters make their choice. But regretfully, at this stage of the campaign, neither Romney, Ryan nor Barack Obama look exceptionally good to the public. But when the final votes are counted Nov. 6, Obama will start his second four-year term - a term the nation prays will at least be better for them than the last four years.
In his first four years, Obama has struck out miserably in trying to steer the nation's struggling economy back to the days of pre-2008 when the Recession kicked in. But Romney and Ryan would bring the economy back to the days of George W. Bush and his eight-year reign.
The rich would become richer. The poor would become poorer. It's a formula that just won't work. The Wall Street Journal has endorsed Ryan. Enough said.
Romney chose Ryan over former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman. All three might have been less controversial a selection than Ryan.
Bloggers, editorial writers, broadcasters and political hacks of all stripes are falling over themselves this week trying to analyze the selection of Ryan. For example, Mary Kate Cary, a former White House speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush, writes in US News & World Report:
"Paul Ryan embodies the new face of the GOP--not the establishment. While some on the right feel that Ryan is a "creature of Washington" because he's served in Congress longer than some of the newcomers, he's the kind of reformer who appeals to voters who threw the bums out in 2010.
"While he's not a Tea Partyer himself, he has some crossover appeal because he's just as willing to talk about the spending mistakes of the Bush era as the failed policies of the Obama administration. He's not your father's Republican Party."
Oh, please give me a break, Mary. Let the violin concertos begin.
