SPECIAL COMMENTARY: WHAT ROMNEY'S VP PICK REALLY MEANS FOR AMERICA

The lines have been drawn, the choice is crystal clear. Today, Romney picked
Tea Party darling and Ayn Rand disciple Paul Ryan as his VP running mate.
photo: Huffington Post

Rochester, N.Y. -- Mitt Romney pandered to the extreme right and announced Paul Ryan as his pick for vice president this morning, guaranteeing that this election will be about tax cuts, Medicare, and the economy.

 Here's a thought by E. Klein about the Ryan pick: This is an admission of fear from the Romney campaign. You don’t make a risky pick like Paul Ryan if you think the fundamentals favor your candidate. You make a risky pick like Paul Ryan if you think the fundamentals don’t favor your candidate. And, right now, the numbers don’t look good for Romney: Obama leads in the Real Clear Politics average of polls by more than four percentage points — his largest lead since April.

Ryan is a rock star for Republicans, the lead architect of the radical right-wing budget that Republicans are pushing in Congress. A budget that calls for:

         

*Huge new tax cuts for the super rich on top of extending the Bush tax cuts
        

* Turning Medicare into a voucher program
       

* Making massive cuts to vital programs like Medicaid, food stamps, Pell Grants, and job training
         

*New increases in military spending -- even as President Obama ends two wars

Let us at the Voice Reporter put this as simply as we can: Paul Ryan is the author of everything we've been fighting against in Washington since Republicans took control of the House -- and now Mitt Romney wants him to be vice president.

It has been said that the Romney and the GOP needed a VP candidate that voters could see as "actually being president." It kind of harks back to the Bush and Cheney days-- where the VP called all the shots and the president basically got out of the way. This shows how ill-prepared Romney really is to be Commander-in Chief-- and how desperately the GOP is to shore up the most conservative elements of their own Party. This also calls into question the risk-reward of picking a guy like Ryan-- a guy who is a Washington insider who sits on Capitol Hill with a single digit approval rating. Plus, Ryan has zero foreign or international relations experience.

The contrast between to the two visions of America couldn't be more different. The future of American society will be determined by whether or not right-minded folks can stem the tide of voter suppression efforts, exorbitant gobs of Super PAC money and the lies and misdeeds of extreme elements of right wing ideology. This is what the GOP is hoping for-- even though their policies overtly explain that their vision will only improve the lives of the richest Americans. Our challenge is formidable, but one that has to succeed if working families want to remain relevant in a democratic system that should be about fairness, equality and opportunity.

Under a Romney-Ryan and Maggie Brooks administration, you can expect those who are insulated from any financial harm to continue to reap the benefits of a rigged system while the poor, disabled, working poor and middle class struggle with uncertainty, access to public services and a lower standard of living. The GOP plan is basically, at it's core, a path to the poorhouse for the 99 percent of us.

-Ove Overmyer