Mittens and Ryan’s Romneyhood: 5 Things You Need to Know and Did Romney Give Up Florida

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Today’s Slate wonders whether Mittens just lost Florida:

In choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney: a) doesn’t get a bump in Florida from choosing homestate Senator Marco Rubio b) risks scaring off elderly people worried abour protecting their entitlements.

As Marc Caputo points out in the Miami Herald, Democrats like this fight. Tweet from Rep. Ted Deutch, a Dem from Boca Raton: “Paul Ryan wants to privatize Social Security. Looking forward to welcoming Mitt and his pick to Florida. There’s nothing brave about cutting the programs that America’s seniors rely on for their health and financial security.”

It’s actually only people younger than 55 who would be affected by Ryan’s plan to restructure and privatize Medicare by replacing it with vouchers. Still, according to Caputo, “While no Florida-specific polls on the Ryan plan are available, a poll last summer by CNN/Opinion Research Corp. said that more than 50 percent of voters opposed Ryan’s proposal. Opposition was highest among senior citizens.”

And critically important is Ryan’s muse, Ayn Rand:

Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand. Ryan heaped praise on Ayn Rand, a 20th-century libertarian novelist best known for her philosophy that centered on the idea that selfishness is “virtue.” Rand described altruism as “evil,” condemned Christianity for advocating compassion for the poor, viewed the feminist movement as “phony,” and called Arabs “almost totally primitive savages. Though he publicly rejected “her philosophy” in 2012, Ryan had professed himself a strong devotee. “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” he said at a D.C. gathering honoring the author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.” “I give out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well… I try to make my interns read it.” Learn more about Ryan’s muse:

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  • JohnnieSanchez

    This woman is an animal in her thinking and her actions. Anyone who would give her philosophy are sick. Hitler would’ve loved this ugly witch. Atlas Shrugged indeed

  • paddypaws2

    This choice still baffles me. Reading this, I’m guessing they’re trying to get the Libertarians to vote Republican. Someone help he out here.

    • Richard Lyon

      I’ve been pondering the same thing. Most libertarians already vote Republican. Those that vote the Libertarian ticket aren’t enough to worry about. It looks like it is the Tea Party that they are trying to placate. Since I can’t see it doing much to attract independent voters, I don’t understand the strategy. This is just a wild thought, but maybe Mittens doesn’t understand it either. :)
       

  • Richard Lyon

    What worries me about the senior vote is that as long as plans are framed as cuts to future entitlements and not cuts to present benefits, there are too many people who may say as long as it’s not me, I don’t care. I devoutly hope that the American voters reject everything that Ryan has to say, but I don’t automatically assume that they will.
     

    •  @Richard Lyon it also does not help that the GOP is blatantly lying out of the gate with the Rovain/Orwellian claim that that Obama has robbed Medicare via the ACA
       
      Nasty pieces of work
       

      • Richard Lyon

         @nancy a heitzeg I have absolutely no doubt that if R&R promise to phase in their cuts, those are promises that would not be kept. I vividly remember when California passed prop 13 cutting property taxes. There were all these people who voted for it who were utterly shocked when it caused cuts to programs that they benefited from. OMG, there has been a terrible misunderstanding!