Day: August 13, 2012

Ryan Elicits the Least Positive Reaction to Recent Veep Choices

Buck Banks

42%

Of Americans finds Rep. Paul Ryan is a “fair” or “poor” choice as Mitt Romney’s running mate vs. 39% who think he is an “excellent” or “pretty good” choice, according to A new USA Today/Gallup Poll — one of the least positive recent reactions to a vice presidential choice. The poll also finds 17% of adults say they are more likely to vote for Romney in November because Ryan is his running mate — about the same impact Sarah Palin had for John McCain four years ago among registered voters.

Ryan’s Record More Conservative than Bachmann’s

Buck Banks

The statistical system DW-Nominate evaluates him as being roughly as conservative as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), the controversial congresswoman of Minnesota. … By this measure, in fact, which rates members of the House and Senate throughout different time periods on a common ideology scale, Mr. Ryan is the most conservative Republican member of Congress to be picked for the vice presidential slot since at least 1900. He is also more conservative than any Democratic nominee was liberal, meaning that is is the furthest from the center. (The statistic does not provide scores for governors and other vice presidential nominees who never served in Congress.)

— Nate Silver, writing for the New York Times’ Five Thirty Eight Blog, assesses Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) congressional voting record.

Inside a Mitt Romney Rally, or At Least Near It

Trish
TruthRomney
Left, 'Truth,' and on the other side, (right) 'Romney.' WTF???

I hope you faithful Pensito Reviewers appreciate my sacrifice in bringing you these crowd shots from Mitt Romney’s appearance in St. Augustine, Fla. on Monday, Aug. 13. I had to get up at 6 a.m. — that’s 6 in the morning, people! — to start my day with a bunch of rabid Republicans and tea partiers.

I wanted to stick around for the speechifying by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Gov. Rick Scott, Sen. Marco Rubio, and of course, Willard himself but the speakers started late (you’d think Republicans would be on time and Democrats would run late), and going on three hours in, I wanted to flee the scene. The vibe was decidedly “We’re taking our country back,” and since I’m the one they’re trying to take it back from, it wasn’t pleasant.

But do enjoy these shots. I made them just for you.

[…]

Paul Ryan Has Never Released His Tax Returns

Jon Ponder

We’ll probably learn later that this was a key factor in Romney’s decision to choose Ryan as his running mate:

As a candidate for Congress, Paul Ryan has released financial disclosure forms for years, but he has never released his tax returns.

We know that Ryan turned over “several years” of tax returns to the Romney campaign during the vice presidential vetting process. We have asked the Romney campaign if any of those returns will be made public. No answer yet.