BOSTON, Massachusetts, Sept 28 (AFP) – From the moment Mitt Romney mistakenly introduced his running mate Paul Ryan to the world as “the next president of the United States,” one word has routinely described the pairing: awkward. Cringe-worthy as that highly anticipated launch was in Virginia in early August, the Republican ticket has since lurched [...]

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Romney’s rapidly shrinking running mate

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BOSTON, Massachusetts, Sept 28 (AFP) – From the moment Mitt Romney mistakenly introduced his running mate Paul Ryan to the world as “the next president of the United States,” one word has routinely described the pairing: awkward.
Cringe-worthy as that highly anticipated launch was in Virginia in early August, the Republican ticket has since lurched from one stumble to the next as it seeks to lay out the case for ousting President Barack Obama from the White House in November.

The Republican vice-presidential candidate, Paul Ryan (Reuters)

Some experts, strategists and even conservative luminaries are beginning to worry that Ryan is not having the effect Romney was aiming for when he plucked the 42-year-old, congressman from Wisconsin to be his political wingman.
The benefits of a Romney-Ryan ticket seemed clear: the ex-governor of Massachusetts picked a budget hawk whose grand plan about lassoing runaway federal spending appeared to ensure the campaign would be about big ideas.
Would Americans expand government and saddle future generations with endless debt, or embrace transformational reforms that would save entitlements like Medicare from going bust?

But with polls showing Obama leading Romney nationally and in just about all battleground states, the Republican challenges are vast.

Ryan is architect of a budget blueprint that is deeply controversial.And his plans to convert Medicare, the government health insurance program that serves 50 million retirees and disabled Americans, into a voucher scheme aimed at saving money but which could expose seniors to rising health care costs, have proven unpopular.

“We have not, in recent times, had a VP candidate who was so identified as the leader on a controversial position on a central issue of the campaign,” Joel Goldstein, a renowned vice presidential scholar at St. Louis University, told AFP.
“The Ryan plan, or parts of it, will prove harmful with important blocs — e.g. seniors — in swing states.
Poll results in Friday’s Washington Post bore that out. They showed senior voters in the election’s three biggest battlegrounds — Florida, Ohio and Virginia — favor Obama’s position on Medicare more than the overhaul proposed by Romney-Ryan.
Seniors in those states, by majorities surpassing 70 percent, said they prefer the guaranteed benefits of Medicare rather than shifting it to a system of fixed government payments to recipients who can then purchase health coverage from private insurers or traditional Medicare, as Ryan has advocated.

Among the states’ registered voters who say Medicare is “extremely important,” 59 percent support Obama, with 36 supporting Romney.

Ryan got an earful of the hostility this month when he addressed the AARP, which represents 37 million seniors and retirees. They booed when Ryan laid out his plans and called for the repeal of “Obamacare,” the president’s health care reform law.
He heard it from his boss on Sunday, when Romney appeared on CBS news show “60 Minutes” and distanced himself from Ryan’s Medicare position.

“I’m the guy running for president, not him,” Romney said.




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