On the local CBS channel here in Florida, between the end of the football game and the start of 60 Minutes, they ran a new Romney ad featuring Marco Rubio. It is devoted entirely to Medicare. Rubio says that his 81 year old mom "depends on Medicare" but he admits that, under the Romney-Ryan plan,
younger Americans [must] accept that our Medicare will be different than our parents'.
This from the same guy who has said that Medicare and Social Security
actually weakened us as a people because they made it so it "was no longer necessary to worry about saving for security because that was the government’s job."
The spot is called Least We Can Do.
Does that seem like an effective ad to you?
It does not make sense to me, highlighting the fact that Romney will reduce benefits for younger people. Rubio says sacrifices are necessary because "Medicare is going broke," but this ad is not going to win people over.
As pointed out in the Huff Post,
Democrats have spent over a month slamming Ryan for proposing to turn Medicare into a voucher system, which they argue would "end Medicare as we know it."
The ad implies that the campaign still feels vulnerable against those attacks, which have also played a big role in races at the congressional level.
As one commentator pointed out,
Do Republicans ever talk about the Defense Department going broke? Or the CIA going broke? Or the Congressional Pension Fund going broke?
Nope.
Rubio has cut a similar ad in Spanish. My favorite part is Mitt himself saying in Spanish that he approves the message.
Another good comment on the ad: "Hey Marco...if your mom is 81, uses Medicare and doesn't pay federal taxes, isn't she "in the bag" for Obama?"