By Patrick
CNN just reported a few minutes ago that Paul Ryan will be Mitt Romney's running mate:
Richmond, Virginia (CNN) - Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will announce his running mate at the beginning of a four-day, four-state bus tour in Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday at 9 a.m. ET, his campaign announced in a statement late Friday night.
Three Republican sources told CNN that Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin would be Romney’s running mate pick. GOP sources also told CNN that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman have all been told that they won’t be getting the nod.
Kathleen found this entertaining Democratic campaign clip which was first published in May this year - "Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan: That's Amore":
It is a boring, and very predictable pick by Mitt Romney. I is obviously designed to excite the Tea Party base, but it will also give the Obama campaign excellent possibilities for new attacks for example against the cuts in Medicare which Paul Ryan proposed.
But what I find particularly devastating is the fact that Paul Ryan is one of the "disciples" of GOP-hero Ayn Rand, a woman who famously declared that "altruism is evil", a notion which now seems to be preferred way of thinking by many people within the GOP. It is a terrible message.
See what Paul Ryan had to say about Ayn Rand in 2009:
She "built a moral base for capitalism?"
Here is an even longer speech that Paul Ryan gave about Ayn Rand (it's not "secret", though, as the title says):
Paul Ryan: "I grew up on Ayn Rand."
This is quite a sentence (at the 1:43 mark): "You cannot find another thinker or writer who did a better job of describing and laying out the moral case for capitalism than Ayn Rand."
I am sure that many of you are familiar with Ayn Rand. This video gives a short introduction:
Here is a longer clip with interviews by Ayn Rand:
Ayn Rand was a radical, extremely narrow-minded person who was obsessed with the idea that people should not help each other. What a wonderful role model! Just what the USA needs right now. The billionaires will love it!
Paul Ryan only "disavowed" Ayn Rand this year when he suddenly found out the Ayn Rand was an atheist. I am not sure how he could have missed that. As he said, Ryan "grew up on Ayn Rand", and Ayn Rand herself was not shy about her views and gave many interviews about her atheism. This has to be the least convincing statement by Paul Ryan imaginable - but maybe he is a good running mate for Mitt Romney, because Paul Ryan also seems to be a die-hard "flip-flopper!" He tells people whatever they want to hear in the current given situation - the GOP's only change to success these days.
So it's "the billionaires' pick" this year. Good luck, Republicans!
(h/t to JCos for the logo!)
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UPDATE:
Alternet reports that Paul Ryan is a huge "Koch-Sucker" - he has been very closely associated with the Koch Brothers for several years already:
In case anyone should miss the point that Ryan is a very Kochy guy, Romney is doing his big reveal of Ryan this morning aboard the U.S.S. Wisconsin, a decommisioned ship docked in the all-important swing state of Virginia. However important Virginia is to the electoral math, Wisconsin is a symbolic icon for the Tea Party. It's not only Ryan's home state; it's the poster state of right-wing triumph, the place where Gov. Scott Walker successfully fended off a recall attempt by progressives in response to a bill he rammed through the state legislature that all but ended collective bargaining for the state's public employees. Much of the credit for Wisconsin's right turn goes to Americans For Prosperity, which boasts a particularly aggressive Wisconsin chapter, which began building a network of activists there in 2005.
Ryan's association with the group goes back almost that far. In 2008, he was granted the Wisconsin AFP chapter's "Defending the American Dream" award, handed to him by a young county executive who served as emcee for those festivities -- a guy named Scott Walker. Since then, he has made countless appearances on the group's behalf, at anti-health-care reform rallies on Capitol Hill, on conference town halls across the country and at Americans For Prosperity and Americans For Prosperity Foundation events. (Just enter Ryan's name into the search engine on the Amerians For Prosperity Web site, and you'll come up with eight pages of citations.) In fact, Ryan was due to speak at last week's conference sponsored by the AFP Foundation in Washington, D.C., forcing increased speculation about his running-mate prospects when he failed to show .
So Romney/Ryan surely will make the activist billionaires happy, who last year promised the "mother of all wars" during the 2012 campaign in their fight against "Saddam Hussein" while speaking to their ultra-rich supporters at the secret meeting in June 2011:
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Please re-tweet:
https://twitter.com/politicalgates/status/234273914300272640
https://twitter.com/politicalgates/status/234273968826241025
https://twitter.com/politicalgates/status/234274920090193920
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UPDATE 2:
The first huge gaffe of Romney/Ryan!
Romney: "Join me in welcoming the next President of the United States, Paul Ryan!
The clip is already up on youtube:
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UPDATE 3:
That's Romney's man - Paul Ryan booed by citizens in Town Hall meeting in April 2011 during a discussion about the growing income inequality:
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UPDATE 4:
Paul Ryan speaks at a rally of Koch-funded "Americans for Prosperity" in March 2012 - he is a terribly boring and uninspiring speaker:
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UPDATE 5:
Oh, sweet: 290 pages of opposition research on Paul Ryan! Published by progressive PAC "American Bridge."
Big h/t to Cheeriogirl! American Bridge Paul Ryan Research Book
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UPDATE 6:
Our reader AzureGhost found a new logo:
In addition, AzureGhost has her very own interpretation of the new GOP ticket:
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