Rove: The GOP's Medicare Advantage

Democrats have long had an issue edge on Medicare. Republicans cowered in fear. Here's why it's different in 2012.

By KARL ROVE

Predictably, Democrats went after Mitt Romney's new running mate immediately, describing Paul Ryan as a "certifiable right-wing ideologue" whose views are "extreme" and "radical." They focused on Medicare, warning that Republicans "would end Medicare as we know it," making it "a voucher system" that costs seniors "thousands of dollars in health care costs."
Some Republican hand-wringers moaned. They failed to consider that Democrats were going to level these charges no matter whom Mr. Romney picked as his running mate. And they ignored the ammunition the party has to turn the issue against Democrats.

How Obama Will Cash In on Paul Ryan: Medicare, Taxes, Education & More

by Robert Shrum 

Romney’s choice of running mate accelerates the move away from the 2012 election as a straight-line referendum on the economy. Now it is unmistakably and irretrievably a decision about the future, says Robert Shrum.

Never pick a man with a plan—at least not Paul Ryan’s kind of plan.

After every quadrennial vice-presidential audition, another cautionary guideline emerges. A spectacular example: post–Sarah Palin, any potential choice will be tested for minimum passable competence in foreign policy.

L-R: Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan and President Barack Obama. (Getty Images)

Ryan is an articulate, informed, self-proclaimed purveyor of “bold” ideas that also happen to be very bad, both substantively and politically. By the time the Obama campaign finishes with him, his specter, like hers, will become a red flag—in his case, a warning against selecting anyone who doesn’t conceal or soften his enmity to economic and social justice, but explicitly repudiates the safety net and basic protections for the middle class.

How Obama Will Cash In on Paul Ryan: Medicare, Taxes, Education & More

by Robert Shrum 

Romney’s choice of running mate accelerates the move away from the 2012 election as a straight-line referendum on the economy. Now it is unmistakably and irretrievably a decision about the future, says Robert Shrum.

Never pick a man with a plan—at least not Paul Ryan’s kind of plan.

After every quadrennial vice-presidential audition, another cautionary guideline emerges. A spectacular example: post–Sarah Palin, any potential choice will be tested for minimum passable competence in foreign policy.

L-R: Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan and President Barack Obama. (Getty Images)

Ryan is an articulate, informed, self-proclaimed purveyor of “bold” ideas that also happen to be very bad, both substantively and politically. By the time the Obama campaign finishes with him, his specter, like hers, will become a red flag—in his case, a warning against selecting anyone who doesn’t conceal or soften his enmity to economic and social justice, but explicitly repudiates the safety net and basic protections for the middle class.