Thirty Six Hours

It only took him 36 hours…

Last Saturday Mitt Romney announced that he had selected Paul Ryan as his running mate.  For the first time in this campaign Romney looked presidential.  He seemed energized, confident and relaxed.  It was as if he was proud of himself for making this bold pick.

We naturally assumed that Romney was aware of the scrutiny the Ryan pick would generate.  Endorsing Ryan meant endorsing the controversial Ryan Budget; a budget wildly popular with the base and passed by the Republican controlled House.  Romney himself had said that if elected president he would sign the Ryan budget if it reached his desk.  He called the Ryan budget “marvelous.” Surely the Romney Campaign was well prepared and eager to defend all aspects of Ryan’s controversial plan.

We congratulated Romney on having the courage to make this bold pick and we looked forward to a substantive debate between the Romney/Ryan and Obama/Biden views for our future.  

Thirty six hours later Romney was back to his same old wishy-washy self.   During a “60 minute” interview with Bob Schieffer, Romney steered away from the Ryan Plan making it clear that it was his budget the ticket would be campaigning on, not Ryan’s.  On Monday, during an impromptu press conference, Romney was asked three separate times to explain the differences between his budget plan and Ryan’s…to delineate where he and Ryan agreed and disagreed.  Romney refused to answer; choosing instead to attack the president’s economic record.  He was clearly uncomfortable and unprepared to answer the question.

It is unfathomable to believe that the Romney campaign made this pick without being prepared to give a full throated endorsement to all that Ryan brings to the table.  Yet that is exactly what appears to have happened.  It is as if Romney thought he could energize his party by choosing Ryan while deflecting any controversy that Ryan’s views might bring to the table…hoping that eventually the probing questions would subside.

But they will not.  Democrats are going to define Romney with Ryan.  They will bury Romney under Ryan’s plans for Medicare and abuse him for his less than full throated support of his own running mate.  Once again Romney will be portrayed as a flip flopper who lacks the political courage to take a stand.  He doesn’t want to talk about his religion, he doesn’t want to talk about his time as governor, he doesn’t want to talk about his taxes and now he doesn’t want to talk about the specifics of a budget plan that he said he would pass on day one as president.

Normally a candidate will get a bump in the polls immediately after announcing his pick for running mate and he will ride that surge all the way to the convention.  But the Romney pick has failed to move the polls.  His performance over the past two days certainly has not helped.

“Politico” having conducted 36 interviews with Republican strategists and campaign operatives reports: “that there is an unmistakable consensus among political 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 wrong…the most common reactions to Ryan ranged from gnawing apprehension to hair-on-fire anger…(some) 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 Romney wants to win the White House then he needs to get out in front of this…and he needs to do it quickly.  He needs to get specific about where he stands on Ryan’s budget, how that proposal interacts with his own views and how it all comes together to build a better country.  He has an opportunity to change the narrative and define the campaign…to make good on the big and bold promise that the Ryan pick brought to the conversation. 

But if Romney continues along the same vague, evasive path that he has walked before he may well lose this election before he even gets to the convention.

We long for a substantive debate featuring two very different views of the country’s future. 

We’re still waiting.