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The Ryan/Obama contrast:
conservative competence contrasted with liberal rhetoric

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 1:14 pm - August 13, 2012.
Filed under: 2008 Presidential Politics,2012 Presidential Election,Conservative Ideas,Noble Republicans,Obama Worship & Indoctrination

Yesterday, I wrote a longish post contending that Paul Ryan is very much the “un-Obama.”  Because I fear my basic point was lost as I combined with another, I wish to make that point again here, but more succinctly.

Barack Obama became a hero to Democrats in the second half of the Bush Administration based not on the ideas he champion or the policies he proposed, but on the words he spoke and the image he projected.  His 2004 keynote address to the Democratic National Convention, which introduced him to the American people, was short on substance and long on rhetoric.

Paul Ryan, by contrast, has become a hero to Republicans on more substantive grounds.  Unlike Obama who skyrocketed to political rock star status with that one speech, Ryan has, over the past few years, gradually risen in esteem among the Republican rank and file.  And he earned our respect based on his ability to articulate conservative ideas — and to translate them into workable policy proposals.

FROM THE COMMENTS: In other words, quips  TnnsNE1, “Ryan built that. Obama didn’t”

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18 Comments

  1. In other words : “Ryan built that. Obama didn’t”

    Comment by TnnsNE1 — August 13, 2012 @ 1:22 pm - August 13, 2012

  2. “Personnel is policy” and, as Walter Russell Mead said in the piece you linked earlier, the Ryan pick gives Romney some much-needed definition, as a guy who means to fix Obama’s fiscal mess.

    Lefties are cackling with glee because they think they can depict Romney-Ryan now as grandma-killing fiscal extremists. It’s a poor move, because it just underlines that the fiscal topic is important, and that R-R are the guys to turn to. (IF the electorate really want it solved, that is.)

    Lefties had best go back to their strategy of distraction – Sandra Fluke, Romney’s tax returns, Romney’s adolescence, Seamus the Dog, etc. No doubt they will, soon enough.

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 13, 2012 @ 1:31 pm - August 13, 2012

  3. The left is all fluff and image – the right gets down and dirty and does the work that needs to be done.

    Comment by Leah — August 13, 2012 @ 1:33 pm - August 13, 2012

  4. Dan,
    Shouldn’t you be making your comparisons between Ryan and Biden?

    Ryan isn’t running for president. And he ain’t worth eight years of Romney.

    Comment by Cinesnatch — August 13, 2012 @ 2:15 pm - August 13, 2012

  5. #4.. Funny how liberals want to change the comparisons this time around. Surely, the liberals never compared Mrs. Palin to Mr. Obama. All of the 2,789,583 negative Mrs. Palin news stories compared Mrs. Palin to Mr. Biden. Right?

    Thanks for playing the “Liberal Hypocrite Game”.

    Here is your departing gift. The newest bumper sticker : “After all that BO, I need some R&R “

    Comment by TnnsNE1 — August 13, 2012 @ 2:32 pm - August 13, 2012

  6. Shouldn’t you be making your comparisons between Ryan and Biden?

    Dan is saying, Look how each party’s supporters choose their respective *heroes*. Are you seriously suggesting that Democrats find ol’ Jo(k)e Biden to be one of their heroes?

    A Biden-Ryan comparison would be only the more flattering to Republicans.

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 13, 2012 @ 2:42 pm - August 13, 2012

  7. Obama picked a hinged head lackey who would not get in the way.

    Romney picked a man of intelligence who has his own thoughts and ideas along with the skills to present them in a meaningful way.

    Their choices say a lot about what type of leader Romney and Obama are.

    Comment by TnnsNE1 — August 13, 2012 @ 2:50 pm - August 13, 2012

  8. TnnsNE1 @ 5:

    Dude, that is GENIUS. Can I steal that for a bumpersticker????

    Comment by Bastiat Fan — August 13, 2012 @ 2:54 pm - August 13, 2012

  9. #8.. sure my partner and I are already using it. House sign to match. BTW, just added “The Law” to my phone.

    Comment by TnnsNE1 — August 13, 2012 @ 3:12 pm - August 13, 2012

  10. I have to agree, #5 (TnnsNE1) is great 🙂

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — August 13, 2012 @ 3:19 pm - August 13, 2012

  11. Obama picked a hinged head lackey who would not get in the way.

    Romney picked a man of intelligence who has his own thoughts and ideas along with the skills to present them in a meaningful way.

    Their choices say a lot about what type of leader Romney and Obama are.

    Comment by TnnsNE1 — August 13, 2012 @ 2:50 pm – August 13, 2012

    Exactly.

    Obama is smarter, more qualified, and can do their jobs better than anyone he has hired — as he will gladly tell you.

    Romney picked someone who is better than he is in regard to critical and key issues.

    The former’s organization can outperform him. The latter’s organization will always underperform him.

    No business consultant alive would suggest to a chief executive that he only hire people who were less qualified than he was to do a job.

    But then again, Obama knows he’s smarter than those business consultants.

    Comment by North Dallas Thirty — August 13, 2012 @ 3:50 pm - August 13, 2012

  12. Whoops — that is, the latter’s organization (Romney’s) can outperform him, while the former’s (Obama’s) can only underperform him.

    Comment by North Dallas Thirty — August 13, 2012 @ 3:52 pm - August 13, 2012

  13. Pretty surprising that Ryan listens to Rage Against the Machine. I wonder if he pays attention to the lyrics.

    Comment by Cinesnatch — August 13, 2012 @ 8:11 pm - August 13, 2012

  14. and to translate them into workable policy proposals.

    Ryan’s budget is not a workable policy proposal. He cobbled together a list of Republican economic fantasy policies, slapped the word budget on it, and introduced it as a member of the minority when he knew it had no chance of passing.

    Republicans know that Ryan’s budget would crater the economy and there’s no chance they’d try to pass it even if they had the Presidency, the House, and a supermajority in the Senate. The Republicans needed a fresh face after their ranks were depleted during the Bush years and of course, the conservative movement gobbled him up. You shouldn’t give politicians credit until they demonstrate they can pass legislation, and that legislation does what it’s intended to do. Ryan made a list – anyone can make a list. Why should anyone be impressed by that?

    Comment by Levi — August 14, 2012 @ 7:11 am - August 14, 2012

  15. Dear Levi,

    Representative Ryan’s budget is workable, and received more votes that Obama’s.

    Oh and it is sensible, honest and serious. Don’t take my word for it, take that bastion of conservative thought, Erksine Bowles.

    “Have any of you met Paul Ryan? We should get him to come to the university. I’m telling you this guy is amazing, uh. I always thought that I was OK with arithmetic, but this guy can run circles around me. And, he is honest. He is straightforward. He is sincere.
    And, the budget that he came forward with is just like Paul Ryan. It is a sensible, straightforward, serious budget and it cut the budget deficit by $4 trillion…just like we did.
    The President came out with his own plan and the President came out, as you will remember, with a budget and I don’t think anyone took that budget very seriously. Um, the Senate voted against it 97 to nothing. He, therefore, after a lot of pressure from folks like me, he came out with a new budget framework and, in the new budget framework, he cut the budget deficit by $4 trillion over 12 years. And, to be candid, this $4 trillion cut was very heavily back-end loaded. So, if you looked at it on a 10 year basis and compared apples-to-apples, it was about a $2.5 trillion cut.”

    See, unlike you, I actually can back up my comments with facts. Found any of those quotes about the Founding Fathers wanting to ban guns? 21 days since you made that claim, and still the silence is deafing.

    Now hush Levi, the adults are talking.

    Comment by The_Livewire — August 14, 2012 @ 7:48 am - August 14, 2012

  16. “You shouldn’t give politicians credit until they demonstrate they can pass legislation, and that legislation does what it’s intended to do. Obama made a list – anyone can make a list. Why should anyone be impressed by that?”

    Seems in 2008, the gay left, the MSM and Hollywood were impressed with Obama for all the wrong reasons. Thank you for proving the only reason these 3 groups supported Obama was his skin color. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

    My question to you : Why do you hold conservatives to a higher standard than liberals? Is it because liberals are not capable of preforming at the standards you set for conservatives?

    Comment by TnnsNE1 — August 14, 2012 @ 8:24 am - August 14, 2012

  17. One might ask Levi what the Obamacrat plan for bringing down the deficit and reforming entitlements is, but he knows as well as we do that they don’t have one. At least, not one that doesn’t contain the words “and then, a miracle happens.”

    Comment by V the K — August 14, 2012 @ 9:52 am - August 14, 2012

  18. V the K.

    Levi’s argument has always been “Spend MOAR money! It didn’t work? Spend MOAR money.”

    Comment by The_Livewire — August 14, 2012 @ 11:53 am - August 14, 2012

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