Mitt Romney, with his trusted teleprompter at his side, formally introduced Paul Ryan as his running mate this morning in a speech filled with ridiculous falsehoods. But it was the very last line that's going to linger a bit.
If you watch the very last five seconds of this clip, you'll see Romney say, "Join me in welcoming the next president of the United States, Paul Ryan."
Oops.
Now, verbal slip-ups happen to everyone. Romney's not a great speaker; he's probably tired early on a Saturday morning; and maybe the speechwriters who tell the candidate what to say flubbed the text in the teleprompter. Romney has made mistakes far more offensive than this one.
But the reason this blunder will resonate is because it speaks to a larger truth: it's Ryan who Republicans will be excited about and it's Ryan who has the vision the ticket will run on.
All of a sudden, the race isn't about President Obama or Bain Capital or the Olympics or the culture war -- it's about the guy Romney picked as his running mate, whom he accidentally introduced as the next president.
Incidentally, I'll have a more detailed take on Romney's speech once I get the transcript, but he very specifically tried to deflect the Medicare criticism that he and Ryan will receive by attacking Obama for "cutting" Medicare.
Even for Romney, this is brutally insane. For one thing, he's blatantly lying. For another, Ryan's budget plan includes all of the Medicare savings Obama found in the ACA. (You really shouldn't attack cuts then pick as your running mate the guy who embraced the same cuts.)
And finally, if Romney intends to make Medicare an important part of his message over the next three months, he's going to lose.
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The odious Grover "drown it in the bathtub" Norquist said all the president needs is working digits to sign the legislation.
And Ryan needs only one- to point out to Mitt where to sign.
excellent choice mitt....me being the absolute fartherest right and most conservative member of the republican party maybe now i can find a reason to vote for you.
All of a sudden, the race isn't about President Obama or Bain Capital or the Olympics or the culture war -- it's about the guy Romney picked as his running mate, whom he accidentally introduced as the next president.
Well, Mittwit did beg yesterday that his business, his family, his taxes and all the other "distractions" be taken off the table so they could talk about "the issues." I think the President will be happy to talk about the issues of defending the New Deal, Social Security, Medicare, the minimum wage, the 20th Century. Talk about hanging an albatross around your neck!
Romney demonstrated he will do whatever his far right bosses tell him to do.
most excellent, Sir- and concise!
If these dip@!$%#s win, Ryan will effectively be the president. Romney will be too busy strutting around in a crown and a robe, chanting, "I'm the Wiz!"
The one that killed me was repeating the most outrageous lie about welfare.
It is safe to assume that will be the platform .
We lie, you decide.
Except in certain states where the "You decide" part is a little shaky
and Mittster couldn't be bothered to personally tell Tim Pawlenty that he wasn't selected for the VP slot, he sent his son, Tagg, instead to deliver the hard news. Same way Mitt had done business: cold and faceless. And then the obvious joke follows:
Tagg-you're not 'it'.
Is this an attempt to provide a launch for Ryan as the 2016 nom?
Ryan's political career is over. Each man is an albatross tied around the neck of the other.
"Ryan's political career is over"
Hey, hells- you overlook the attention span/memory of the average American!
I still remember Dick-"you won't have me to kick around anymore"- Nixon.
Day -- you underestimate just how spectacular Romney's loss could be.
I will point out to y'all that a very large and influential segment of the Republican Party blames the loss in '08 on McCain being insufficiently conservative and gives Palin credit for rescuing the campaign from being even worse.
Say what you will of Ryan, he's not nearly the disaster for the ticket that Palin was.
On the other hand, he may be an even greater disaster down-ticket. We can only hope.
ooops.....you slipped also.....what you meant to say was 2020! he'll be VP for 8 years.
My niece and I have predicted that the GOP Convention will result in someone other than Mitt being nominated for GOP Presidential Candidate. Who better than Paul Ryan? HaHaHaHaHa
I have wondered the same thing. I've also wondered if Romney's tax/business history would disqualify him once revealed, putting Ryan next in line by default. Creepy.
So Romney knows Paul Ryan is the star, and so did everybody else to begin with. Romney gets to tag along. Ryan can pull off an upstage, I think, much better than Palin.Romney is not even in charge of himself and his own thoughts let alone a VP pick with more charisma and who is the accepted intellectual leader of the current conservatives whom defy the very definition of themselves.
And now I just heard Romney say in his speech: "If you elect Paul Ryan and me...". Now that is a dynamic. Wasn't Romney caught on tape beforehand mis-referring to Ryan as "the next President"?
BHA! slap me silly. yet another gaffe. the next president of the usa paul ryan lol
PBO made the same mistake when he introduced Biden.
As the video says, they've invited Paul Ryan along. Don't wanna be an American Mitt-iot: http://bit.ly/OO3G0t
It's Palin with a penis.
The RNC should be fined for playing Chinese Badminton.
President Obama made the same "next President" gaffe back in '08. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RElChQ6g2Io
Breakdown:
Obama gets: Women, Gays, African Americans, Hispanics, Low and Middle class, Elderly, College age youth (and those still paying for college in middle age).
Romney gets: Wealthy, Healthy White Men. And Poland, don't forget Poland.
Don't be ridiculous. Palin is Palin with a penis.
Yeah. I think I've seen that video. Spare yourself.
o.O
The absolute awsomest bestest thing about the Ryan nomination is what it's going to do down-ticket. The Democrats have been trying to figure out how to make the election about the Ryan Plan -- because it's such a total winner with the over-50 set [1] -- and here Romney gives it to President Obama as a birthday present.
[1] Lest we forget, running against Paul Ryan was what turned NY district 26 from very, very red to blue.
Excellent point! Because it is "down in the trenches" where the real action takes place- electing a congress that can carry out the lofty goals of a president.
Romney is the head of the ticket, has to be the one calling the shots. Romney is also someone who strikes me as not terribly interested in becoming President. There are too many self inflicted gaffes on his part, there is some quality to him that leads me to feel this, and his introducing Ryan this way only accentuates my impression. Unintentional and yet revealing. When the history of this campaign is written, you can be sure we will hear a great deal about the knee slapping whoops of joy on the part of team Obama upon hearing this announcement. The down ticket races, the Senate races, all will reverberate as a result of this pick. Vouchers, anyone?
Don't get down on Mittens for his misspeak. What he meant to say was Let me introduce you to the next Dick Cheney of the United States who will put the bills in front of me for my autopen to sign.
Why is Rachael Madcow so angry at Romney and Ryan standing in front a navy vessel. She says they both did not serve in the armed forces. Could someone let me know what branch of service President Obama served in before he was elected President. Rachael was so angry this morning on the Chris Hayes show that for a moment I thought it was Mr. Ed, the talking host. For me, I got a tingle running up my leg. Finally, two people who know the meaning of leadership.
Republican 'Patriotism' is having multiple Chinese made "Support Our Troops" bumper stickers on each of their SUVs.
That tingle was probably a DVT..
When mitt was governor of Messachusetts, he was away much of the time running for President.
What he be running for if elected President, Pope or God?
Saint or whatever the Mormons call Joseph Smith and Brigham Young; to be adorned on Mount Rushmore with the unveiling at the same time as Saint Ronald of Rayguns.
Wow, it's sweating to the lies! Where's Richard Simmons? And how come those overweight white people aren't moving more in the audience? Oh!!! This is slothing to the oldies.. That's why! So, Paul Ryan will be the next Prednisone of the United States!
"Quit! quit! quit! quit! quit! Mitt! quit!"
FUBARRomney is so relieved to have someone to hold on to while they drown.
I think Ryan may have saved Romney from a GOP insurgency at the convention. He (Ryan) emphasized choice as something he would bring to the campaign. Interesting choice of words. Choice applies to everyone except women, right?
Yes, when it comes to killing an unborn baby. Nobody should have a "choice" to do that.
Let's see, 6.8 billion others may or may not agree with you Mark. Entitled to your own opinion you are but if you only make a deposit and do not carry the child to term then your input is far less valuable in a manner of speaking. Abortion is legal in this country, or are you not aware of that fact?
Funny how Ms. Maddow didn't mention Obama's similar mistake when it happened! Now that's unbiased reporting isn't it? Wow, Romney misspoke! Let's write an article about it and show my intelligence. Obama misspeaks too, so what? Is it any surprise that they are human and misspeak like every other human being? What a stupid "journalist". No wonder your ratings are so low.
When Obama misspeaks, even when he doesn't, Fox news and Rush Limbaugh are nice enough to point it out, and they even edit it and make up stuff about it. Thanks to your precious Mittens, when the "lefties" report his gaffes, they don't have to do anything but post the video/actual comments. I didn't see anything about this gaff on the Fox news sight yet...oh wait I don't read Faux News.
"Now, verbal slip-ups happen to everyone. Romney's not a great speaker; he's probably tired early on a Saturday morning; and maybe the speechwriters who tell the candidate what to say flubbed the text in the teleprompter. Romney has made mistakes far more offensive than this one."
Did you read the article or just the headline? TBenen just SAID verbal slips aren't important. I double dog DARE conservatives to say the same, or are you STILL insisting President Obama thinks there are 57 states and it wasn't a slip of the tongue?
It's hard work being a conservative minion. So many blogs to comment on, no time to read the content.
Much has been made of the poor choice of a pick that McCain made in Palin and how Romney should not repeat the same mistake. But McCain's problem was not just picking someone who didn't understand basic matters of public policy - it was making a pick that outshined him with the base and with public fascination. Fortunately, Romney seems to have not understood any of this and done exactly what McCain did. This is a real revelation about what Romney is really concerned about - the GOP base turning out on voting day - and played into the meme of Democratic detractors who paint Romney with a brush of elitism and wanting to sacrifice the poor and working Americans for the richest one and multinational corporations.
He accidentally introduced him as President because that is what he is going to be. Romney is just going to be a pen for the far right republicans and tea party members of which Paul Ryan is one. They are going to say "jump" and Romney is going to ask "How high?"
We spend millions ensuring that other countries give their people the freedom to vote for who they want to elect in a fair democratic election. In this country, we have Republicans and Tea Party members who spend millions or billions to ensure that we do not have fair democratic elections. They shorten our right to vote before election days, they ask for uncalled for voter ID's, they brazenly shorten voting times from 8 to 5 in democratic led counties and lengthen it to nights and week-ends for republican led counties. This is not democracy. This is what we send our troops to fight AGAINST in other countries. Now tell me, what party is acting more like communists, the Democrats or the Republicans?
I can't wait until the VP debates.
Biden the everyday man against the intellectual egghead.
Republicans won't even know what Ryan is talking about.
I agree that Republicans and probably way too many others don't understand Ryan's plan. Ryan does have a plan that's on paper and can be debated which can only raise awareness while it's being debated.
Would you rather debate Ryan or Palin? At least with Ryan you could deal with facts and figures and the American people will learn something from the discussion.
Debating Palin would lead to confusion. You would be in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
Tom: I'd rather deal with Ryan because his facts and figures are wrong but at least exist to refute. To me, confusion is when illusion meets reality which for Ryan, Romney and Republicans is preferable to public realization of any kind.
Its easy to debate Ryan. All his ideology about the budget is out there for everyone to see.
A lot of it just doesn't add up.
Unarmed is apt, they would claim victimhood of a female and flocking rescuers to defend her. That is truly scary because no thought to policies that are in play, just emotional rescuing and defending.
Ryan is going to have difficulty backing up the imaginary claims they are pointing to… we need some thought given, not rolling dice, it could come up craps and we are all screwed.
Job cutting for workers, vouchers for elderly, Tax cuts for rich and possibly remove tax deductions for mortgage interest. What else?
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/03/22/5-Things-You-Dont-Know-about-Paul-Ryans-Budget.aspx#page1
More war spending not less. Neo-cons would have puppets to control.
Ryan never ran a business. I thought that was a disqualifier for President. Isn't he next in line if Romney wins?