"Ryan could hurt Romney in Florida"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

That, via Politico, is the lead headline on the front page of today's Miami Herald. The headline for the Web version is similar: "Ryan could be a drag on Romney in Florida."

Of course, it didn't have to be this way for Romney. Florida is just the sort of swing state he can win: badly struggling economy (foreclosures galore), large military and ex-military population, lots and lots of white seniors.

Someone like Chris Christie or Bobby Jindal, or especially the local Marco Rubio, would have helped him here, but, no, he went and picked Paul Ryan, who of course is best known for a hyper-partisan, completely irresponsible right-wing budget plan, the dishonestly named "Path to Prosperity," that would replace Medicare with a voucher program (ending the program as we know it), slash tax rates for the rich (like Romney), impose massive spending cuts on everything but defence, and in assaulting the very foundations of the federal government essentially ondo the social compact upon which the vast majority of Americans rely.

You really think all that's going to play well in Florida, particularly the attack on Medicare, a plan that even Newt Gingrich called "radical" and "right-wing social engineering" (before caving in to pressure and embracing Ryan's far-right Republican orthodoxy)?

Yeah, good luck with that.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/11/2946098/how-paul-ryan-could-be-a-drag.html#storylink=cpy