Gary Pearce posted on August 13, 2012 14:36
I can’t wait to weigh in on Paul Ryan as VP. Meantime, here’s a revealing guest blog from a female TAPster:
Four years ago, the Brain Trust of the Republican Party decided the way to offset the Obama Change Machine was with an unknown female Governor from a far-flung, sparsely populated state. It was a given that her Naughty Librarian look and blathering rhetoric would appeal to Tea Party-ers and slighly more normal conservative Republicans; the McCain crowd was counting on her to reach socially moderate, fiscally conservative mainstream women of both parties and pull them over to their side. What they hadn't counted on was that she proved fairly quickly that she couldn't pass a fourth-grade geography quiz, and many conservative Democratic and unaffiliated voters (especially women) held their collective noses and voted for the Obama ticket. Many of them admired John McCain as an honorable statesman, but just couldn't stomach the thought of the future reality TV star as their President. We all know how that turned out.
Fast foward to this past weekend. In his continued struggle to develop an actual personality for his Presidential campaign, Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate. More populated state: check. Far enough to the right to placate the Mitt-bashers: check. Young and charismatic: check. Clearly an intelligent guy: check. Seems to have a firm grasp of most public policy issues, whether or not you agree with him: check.
So if you pick up a newspaper, follow just about anybody or anything on Twitter or Facebook, turn on the television, or dare to go to a magazine web site, what do you see? You see a picture of Paul Ryan WITHOUT HIS SHIRT. And there's a story/interview about his P90X workout regimen, along with the kind of music on his ipod while he's shaping those six-pack abs. The GOP finally has it figured out: last time around, they insulted the intelligence of the voting population by choosing Sarah Palin as their lady-in-waiting. This time, they've hit the jackpot: they'll appeal to the Fifty Shades of Grey-reading Soccer Moms and the post-menopausal Clay Aiken Stalkers with this hunky Clark Kent type. Once again, the Tea Party whack jobs and the uber-conservatives have nowhere else to go.
The real winners in all this are the producers of The Soup and The Daily Show. I can't wait to see how many times Paul Ryan's ripped torso shows up on "Inside Edition." Is that really what we value in a Vice President? Sure, it's a refreshing change, but really???