South Carolina First Congressional candidate Bobbie Rose had this to say about Mitt Romney's VP selection - and the relation to her opponent, Tim Scott.
I must admit that I welcome Mitt Romney’s selection of a running mate, which he announced today, because I’m sure it will benefit every Democratic candidate in the 2012 election cycle.
Paul Ryan is an ultra-conservative who was the architect of the budget passed by the House last year. My opponent, Tim Scott is an enthusiastic supporter of the Ryan Budget, and a Paul Ryan devotee, too.
This punitive budget places Medicare at risk, though, stripping away any measure of security from the most vulnerable members of our society. It harms other needs, too.
That Romney would accept the author of this budget as his running mate exposes the direction he plans to take this country and the true scope of American values he is willing to sacrifice to get there.
Tea-party fanaticism is waning. The far-right fringe got their House majority (and elected my opponent, Tim Scott) in 2010. The only result has been a frozen, gridlocked House that has squandered opportunities and accomplished nothing.
The Ryan Budget is a perfect example of how out-of-touch this party has become:
• A 98-page budget that has no mention of our veterans. It slashes programs that affect our veterans by over $11 billion, but the word “veteran” never appears.
• Extreme cuts to Medicaid programs and Medicare programs, privatization of Social Security, and a shift of responsibilities for crucial programs to states that are unable to execute the plan.
• An extension of tax cuts to wealthy Americans and big business.
Choosing Ryan as his running mate tells us that Romney still hasn’t gained the support of the conservative base, and that Republicans aren’t convinced of his abilities. Romney determined that a poster child of “right-wing” politics would sway the base to commit to his candidacy. I think he made a grave mistake.
The vast majority of Republicans are fiscally conservative, socially moderate and want to see this country move forward. They are alarmed by the extreme policies implemented by this far-right branch of their party, and are eager to see candidates who ascribe to the older, traditional Republican tenets that originally got their party affiliation.
They won’t find that in Paul Ryan, however. He created a budget that even he can’t possibly take seriously. In his bid for attention, Ryan insisted on taking “raising revenue” off the table during budget talks, killing any chance of compromise and forcing the sequestration disaster this country now faces. That tells traditional Republican voters that Ryan is not interested in representing them, but in getting new corporate donors to his campaign. Paul Ryan has been successful in only one thing during his current term in office: making a name for Paul Ryan.
Romney fell for the clamor and bluster that epitomizes the ultra-conservative, far-right branch of the GOP. Fortunately, the majority of Americans are smarter than that.
A Romney-Ryan ticket is truly pulling back the curtain on where this team plans to take us, and that is a place the American people, regardless of party affiliation, do not want to go.