Shining Through

RedStateVT Ruminates
Romney-Ryan face a daunting task. If they only had to run against Obama the job would be relatively easy. Obama's is a failed presidency. But as has been pointed out, Romney-Ryan have to run also against a very large and organized Liberal media that is heavily invested in Obama's success. And so the media uses a variety of strategies to tilt the race. They hide Obama's failures (how much money HAS been wasted on failed green energy projects?) They manage Obama's policy reversals (he didn't flip-flop, he "evolved.") And they join him in blaming Republicans for his failures.

It occurs to us to mention two other things during the election season. The first is polling. James Carville said a couple of days ago that Obama was up 'one to three points.' And we have no doubt that in some polls this is true. However, as we have found out, polls can be manipulated. Poll only Democrats and Obama probably is up one to three points. Nonetheless, the Liberal media will always tout the latest poll results that show...whatever they want them to show. Alas, the majority of polls are now simply tools of the Obama campaign. 

A second election season phenomenon is the "fact-check." Every Romney-Ryan utterance is run through an independent, objective, bullet-proof fact-checker which inevitably declares the statement untrue. It's ridiculous, of course. The fact-check is no more reliable than the polls which have stacked the deck for Obama.

The Liberal media loves to say that Romney-Ryan are not doing better because the president remains popular with the American people. It's nonsense. They are and he isn't.

Stark States
Few other issues present a starker difference between the Republican and Democratic tickets. President Obama, through the health care law that was a centerpiece of his domestic agenda, seeks a vast expansion of Medicaid, which currently covers more than 60 million Americans — compared with 50 million in Medicare — and costs the states and the federal government more than $400 billion a year....

The sharply different visions of the two campaigns come as many states, squeezed by soaring Medicaid costs and plunging revenues, are complaining bitterly about the fact that the program is swallowing an ever-larger chunk of their budgets. States have generally not been allowed to cut Medicaid eligibility since the passage of the health care law in 2010, but many have slashed optional benefits and payments to doctors and hospitals instead. Even states that support the planned Medicaid expansion, like California and Massachusetts, have made such cuts, saying that budget crises have given them no choice. (NYT, 8/31/2012)

Why did the Tea Party emerge? Why are Americans outraged about runaway government spending? Why are Republicans trying to do something about government spending? Why is Paul Ryan on the ticket? Why is Obama in danger of defeat?