Watch this clip of Mitt Romney sparring with a heckler at the Paul Ryan homecoming rally in Wisconsin last night and tell me where this candidate has been the whole campaign. This is not the same stiff, cautious Romney we’ve been watching for the past year and a half:
If you haven’t had a chance to watch the full video of Romney and Ryan in Wisconsin last night, do yourself a favor and click over to C-SPAN when you get a chance. With Ryan at his side, Romney is alive, he’s confident and he actually connects with the audience. A.B. Stoddard is correct that he’s turned into a different candidate overnight:
In choosing Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney not only surprised the political world late Friday night, but he has become a different candidate for president over night.
He is suddenly someone willing to take a risk, someone offering specifics instead of generalities, and someone willing to sell his own agenda to the voters instead of trying to bash his way into the Oval Office. And by embracing Ryan, and the controversial policy heft he brings to the ticket, Romney is now a serious candidate who has displayed true leadership — the willingness to do something politically dangerous because he believes it is the right thing to do.
Now, the question is, can Romney keep this up? Ryan has infused the campaign with new enthusiasm, but the trade-off is that the fight will get more difficult from here.
I disagree that the fight will now get more difficult. I think that Americans are fed up with politics as usual and are ready to hear some bold ideas. particularly if they are presented as Ryan presents his.
Alana, I agree. The battle is going to become more intense and difficult. More difficult because I'm not sure that Romney can sustain for almost three months a campaign that clearly contrasts his views with Obama's. A great deal will also depend upon what type of media campaign Romney develops. I wish I could sign on with this new optimism about the new Romney, but I'm just not convinced.
Romney does better when they attack him. He is slow to anger, and stays on an even keel. Obama (from the Democrat pov) should have smothered him in honey. I'm guessing Romney knew all along that Obama was going to be a nasty campaigner.
What we are seeing here the customary "dead cat bounce" that occurs whenever a punched-out pug is about to go down for the last time. The newness of the Ryan Express will quickly lose its sheen and Mitt will revert back to the old duck-and-cover boxer he has always been. If this ticket wins, it will be with Ryan dragging a bloodied and bruised Romney behind him across the finish line.
I like the way this is turning. Nothing will get solved by hiding in a hole. John McCain proved that. Romney has chosen the right direction. Hope is renewed. We have a real chance to not only win, but to win a mandate to make changes that are vital.
Ya know, it's entirely possible that this guy has known what he was doing all along. He played it cool and steady through the primaries as all the others rose and fell. He rope-a-doped it all summer while Obama shot his wad on Bain et al. Now he's picked the Man with a Plan and started to call out the President very directly. At every step he has been where he needed to be and done what he needed to do, regardless. Now we might see the mother of all convention bounces and a very aggressive sprint to the tape. It looks to me like this is a long term plan unfolding, not a series of reactions to events.
Yeah, he has a history of coming from behind in these contests this year. He saves his energy and resources and then, kaboom, he wipes out the other guy.
Just what exactly blogs and forums intended for politics criticism on earth do you recommend me you just read?
What does it say about Mitt Romney, that we are all focused on his running mate? n nMitt, "the businessman," cannot and will not unseat Obama. Why the GOP chose to launch a series of mindless "debates," which left Mitt as the only mediocrity left standing, is the real issue here. The Republican Party lost its way during the Clinton and then the Bush eras. It is not the party that nominated Ronald Reagan to run. It is—well, who knows what it is? n nOne can only pray the GOP will open the convention to other contenders, men and women with some excitement and clarity to offer America's voters—nearly 70% of whom would vote to send Obama packing if given a real alternative. Sadly, Mitt is not that man. He is the devil we don't know, and a very bland, boring devil at that!
Alana, watch your video clip and notice how there are places where Romney is almost like the baseball player rounding third, looking for the coach to waive him on but needing to see the coach do that in order to have the confidence to keep going. Romney almost needs to have someone else whom he trusts there listening to what he is saying and to wave him on. His wife does this to some extent, but Paul Ryan is more of a political showman than she, and Romney clearly trusts him — and that makes all the difference in the world. n nSpeaking in public is overwhelming beyond belief and if you are intelligent (and Romney is), you will have a thousand different judgments going a thousand different directions and you will wind up saying essentially nothing. If you can delegate real-time review to someone whom you trust, if you trust that person enough to blindly accept that persons "go", "be careful" and "stop" signals — which may be pre-arranged or may simply be your reading of his/her/its body language — you can ignore everything and just go. n nAnd then if you trust this person to bail you out if you screw up — to step in should you need help — then you also have an incredible confidence builder.