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This election may be won or lost based on voter turnout. I don't think that picking Ryan increases the numbers for Republicans, but I do think it provides Obama with fertile material to motivate his base into going out and voting for him again.

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where the government exists to increase the personal wealth and political power of its officials and the ruling class at the expense of the wider population, often without pretense of honest service.

Kleptocracies are generally associated with corrupt forms of authoritarian governments, particularly dictatorships, oligarchies, military juntas, or some other forms of autocratic and nepotist government in which no outside oversight is possible, due to the ability of the kleptocrat(s) to personally control both the supply of public funds and the means of determining their disbursal.

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Obama's plan it to increase taxes on those who can afford it while slowly reducing government spending as the economy improves. See the President, who is the adult in the room, understands math. Seems others don't. You can't cut taxes and spending and fix the budget, the numbers simply don't add up. Even Ryan's plan adds to the deficit for many years to come.

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After the initial enthusiasm about the boldness of Mitt Romney's choice of Paul Ryan as running mate, Republican pundits and consultants early this week began voicing measured concerns that the Medicare front may not be where the battle should be joined for November.

Politico reported on Tuesday that many key Republican consultants in Washington are nervous about Ryan and the Medicare distraction, while some are downright despondent and resigned.

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(CBS News) CHILLICOTHE, Ohio - When Mitt Romney announced on Saturday he was picking Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate, he was roundly applauded by Republicans and especially conservatives. But as attention has shifted from jobs and the economy to Ryan's position on Medicare and social programs, some in the party are showing some concern about the selection.

In a USA Today/Gallup poll, 39 percent of Americans said Ryan is an excellent or pretty good choice for vice president. Forty-two percent said he's fair or poor.

The Gallup poll taken Sunday showed Romney's pick helped in his conservative base. Thirty-six percent of Republicans said they are more likely to vote for him -- that's 6 points higher than when John McCain picked Sarah Palin in 2008.

But some inside the GOP establishment tell CBS News there are fears Ryan will do more harm than good with independent voters.

Romney has staked his campaign on the economy, the issue voters say they care about most. But getting more attention now are Ryan's proposals to cut the budget and reform entitlements like Medicare.

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CLEVELAND -- No one wants to admit it openly, but here in Ohio, one of the top battleground states, the reaction to the choice of Paul Ryan is disappointment by Republicans and relief by Democrats. Both sides believed that to secure Ohio's 18 electoral votes, Romney would have been better off picking Ohio Sen. Rob Portman.

No vice-presidential pick can guarantee his home state. But one influential Republican strategist, who voiced his dismay only on background, told National Journal on Saturday that Portman could have added between 1.5 and two points for Romney in Ohio -- and Ryan could make it harder to win here.

Some Republicans fear that Ryan's controversial plans to overhaul Medicare will be a tough sell to Ohio's blue-collar voters. "I'm shocked," said the strategist. "Why would you put them into play? Why would you put Florida into play?"

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Republicans strategists are worried that Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) addition to the presidential ticket will cost their party House and Senate seats this fall.

Their concern: Democrats will successfully demonize Ryan’s budget plan, which contains controversial spending cuts and changes to Medicare.

“There are a lot races that are close to the line we're not going to win now because they're going to battle out who's going to kill grandma first, ObamaCare or Paul Ryan's budget,” said one Republican strategist who works on congressional races. “It could put the Senate out of reach. In the House it puts a bunch of races in play that would have otherwise been safe. ... It remains to be seen how much damage this causes, but my first blush is this is not good.”

Many Republicans in tough races this year, especially in the House, voted for Ryan’s proposal, which makes it hard for them to distance themselves from it.

And while Republicans are expected to keep the House, the more seats they lose, the closer the Democrats will be to a takeover in 2014. The Senate is too close to call; the GOP only needs to gain four seats (if President Obama wins reelection) to take control.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) circulated a memo to lawmakers and candidates on Monday, obtained by The Hill, that they say offers a road map for winning the debate over Ryan’s proposal.

The presentation tells candidates to fight back on Medicare until the issue becomes a tie then refocus the debate on the economy. To do so, Republicans are advised to tie their opponent unequivocally to Obama’s law, highlight the law’s cuts to Medicare and offer counter-messaging that uses credible outside spokespeople — like seniors, or, in Amodei’s case, his mother — to convince seniors that Republicans are in the right on the issue.

Former Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), who chaired the NRCC from 2003-2006, warned that he foresaw in this election shades of President George W. Bush’s fight to create a voucher program for Social Security early in his second term, which many say cost the GOP seats in 2006. “You saw what happened to Bush with Social Security in the 2006 election,” he said. “This is déjà vu.”

Reynolds warned that Romney and Ryan need to get ahead of the story and define themselves before Democrats do it for them. “This next couple weeks is what this is about, Ryan getting vetted. They should use that time to further explain Romney-Ryan as they see it relative to entitlements including Medicare. If they don't define themselves for it Democrats will do it for them,” he said.

One Republican strategist who’d seen the NRCC’s memo worried that the plan offered little new advice, and having Ryan at the top of the ticket lent additional credibility to Democrats on the issue. "It becomes more difficult. The Republican argument and Democrat argument on Medicare now aren't on equal footing anymore — Ryan being on the top of the ticket gives Democrats more credibility,” the strategist said. “There's going to be more resonance when the Democrats attack our guys. It's going to be a part of the national discussion, there's going to be more credibility on this now, and we're not going to be able to wave them off as nonsense.“ http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/243473-gop-conc
erned-ryan-could-cost-party-house-and-senate-seats this from a Republican and NRA supporter:

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I have an acquaintance who is a full-fledged NRA supporter and member. He generally doesn't like Republican policies but often votes that way over the issue of guns.
Up until last week he had every intention of voting for Romney for that reason. But then Romney announced that Ryan is his running mate. BANG. Just like that, he is now voting for Obama.

He could stomach the what-passes-for-centrist-in-today's-GOP Mitt Romney, but not the let's-destroy-medicare-and-Social-Security radical Paul Ryan.

He's just one example, but truly middle of the road voters are complicated. There may be some who were leaning Obama and are now leaning Romney because of Ryan, but outside of his relative youth, charm, and good looks it's hard to see what appeal he has to undecided voters. (Palin had all three as well - okay, the charm part is up for debate but I think a certain segment of the population liked her. And keep in mind the "relative" qualifier...) The economy is still Issue Number One, and Ryan's pet issues are ones on which he is vulnerable (he voted for Bush's budgets like a good minion) and which are not necessarily related to the economy.

I think the Dems and allied groups aren't wasting any time trying to define Ryan as the radical that he is. http://www.coloradopols.com/diary/18300/republicans-worry-about-ryan-e
ffect-on-house-senate]
I'm reading it all over the place:

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You've heard them on television and read them on POLITICO -- cheerful, defiant statements from Republican political professionals about Mitt Romney's bold masterstroke in tapping Paul Ryan as his running mate, and turning the 2012 presidential race into a serious, far-reaching debate about budgets and the nation's future.

Don't buy it.

Away from the cameras, and with all the usual assurances that people aren't being quoted by name, there is an unmistakable consensus among Republican operatives in Washington: Romney has taken a risk with Ryan that has only a modest chance of going right -- and a huge chance of going horribly wrong.

In more than three dozen interviews with Republican strategists and campaign operatives -- old hands and rising next-generation conservatives alike -- the most common reactions to Ryan ranged from gnawing apprehension to hair-on-fire anger that Romney has practically ceded the election.

And the more pessimistic strategists don't even feign good cheer: They think the Ryan pick is a disaster for the GOP. Many of these people don't care that much about Romney -- they always felt he faced an improbable path to victory -- but are worried that Ryan's vocal views about overhauling Medicare will be a millstone for other GOP candidates in critical House and Senate races.

If you are one of those people who thinks if someone has something negative to say, they should have the guts to put their name on it, you won't find much to impress you in this article. Nearly all the Republican professionals interviewed for this story said they would share their unfiltered views only "on background" rules of attribution.

But Washington political chatter is a pervasive reality even when the chatterers prefer not to risk personal relationships or professional prospects by publicly second-guessing their party's nominee. For Romney, even if he ultimately proves the doubters wrong, the skepticism among capital insiders is an obstacle as he seeks to frame a general election argument.

And that skepticism about Ryan among GOP strategists is striking.

They're worried about inviting Medicare -- usually death for Republicans -- into the campaign. They're worried it sidetracks the jobs issue. They're worried he'll expose the fact that Romney doesn't have a budget plan. Most of all, they're worried that Romney was on track to lose anyway -- and now that feels all but certain.

"Whether or not they [the Romney campaign] want to say that they have their own plan on Day One, or whatever they're doing, it doesn't change the reality of them having to own the Ryan plan. How is that in the wheelhouse of creating jobs?" added a GOP consultant.

Joked another: "The most popular phrase in Washington right now is: 'I love Paul Ryan, but ...'"

The most cutting criticism of Ryan, shared only by a handful of strategists, is that Ryan isn't ready to be president -- or doesn't come across as ready. A youthful man who looks even younger than his 42 years, Ryan could end up labeled as Sarah Palin with a PowerPoint presentation, several operatives said.

"He just doesn't seem like he can step into the job on Day One," said the strategist, who professed himself a Ryan fan.

And that's just what it does to the Romney-Ryan ticket. Forget how it plays in close House and Senate races.

"Very not helpful down ballot -- very," said one top Republican consultant.

"This is the day the music died," one Republican operative involved in 2012 races said after the rollout. The operative said that every House candidate now is racing to get ahead of this issue.

Another strategist emailed midway through Romney and Ryan's first joint event Saturday: "The good news is that this ticket now has a vision. The bad news is that vision is basically just a chart of numbers used to justify policies that are extremely unpopular."

The Romney campaign isn't oblivious to Republican skittishness about the pick. In fact, several sources close to the Romney campaign said that top advisers to the candidate initially favored Tim Pawlenty as a "do no harm" choice for the vice presidency, and that even late in the process some leaned toward Ohio Sen. Rob Portman as a running mate who would bring gravitas and governing heft to the ticket -- without Ryan's obvious risks.

Sources close to the selection process tell POLITICO that within the Romney campaign, there was considerable unease about picking Ryan -- but also a recognition that each of the possible picks for running mate had drawbacks to varying degrees.

With Ryan, some on the campaign feared that his first and most crucial days on the trail would be consumed with answering charges about his views on entitlements and completely get the ticket away from its economic message. That's the signal concern now among the Republican worrywarts.

"It turned a referendum into a choice," said one Washington Republican lawyer. "[Choosing Ryan] forfeited the no-real-world-experience point Romney has been building up for months [about Obama] and put a new state in play that was otherwise trending his way [Florida]."

Republicans are not (evidently) at the point of publicly breaking ranks with Romney and Ryan, and may never get there. After all, Romney is still the presidential nominee and Ryan commands deep respect -- even awe -- in many corners of the party. Several have noticed that Romney seems more energized since Ryan joined the ticket and that their chemistry seems real.

Yet the Romney campaign has quieted few doubts in the 36 hours since announcing Ryan for vice president. The Republican presidential nominee has endured withering press coverage in senior-heavy Florida and dodged questions about where his views on Medicare differ from Ryan's.

The longer Republicans have to litigate this issue instead of campaigning on jobs and the economy, strategists say, the more ground they will lose against Obama and the greater the odds that Romney will drag down other members of his party.

Since Saturday, however, the actions of campaigns on both sides of the 2012 race have effectively spoken for themselves on the importance Ryan's plan may have in the race: Democrats have launched, almost by reflex, into a full-scale "Medi-scare" campaign while Republicans have rushed to blunt that argument with attacks on Obama's health care plan.

Yet another operative deeply involved in the 2012 campaign said that in "every competitive race in the country, strategists have held conference calls in the last 48 hours to try to figure out how to be on offense on this. A week ago we were talking about jobs, and this week we're talking about entitlement reform."

"Everybody loves Paul Ryan. Everybody supported the Ryan plan," the strategist said. "But nobody thinks Ryan should be the tip of the spear." http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20120810paul-ryan-pick
-republicans-worried-politico.html

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Raising 3.5 million dollars ain't gonna count for SHIT with all the millions being spent on this campaign. You always get a spike when a VP is picked--how much did the pick of Sarah Palin raise immediately after she was announced? And we know where THAT went...

Personally, I think Ryan is a WORSE pick than Palin, tho' to me not as offensive a one, since Ryan seems like a nice guy and is intelligent. We shall see....