The presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney has been hijacked by the anti-choice, social-engineering fanatic he has chosen to be his vice-president. If Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were in a position to develop a responsible working relationship the appointment would be defensible but under the circumstances, it is not.
Why did Mitt Romney pick Paul Ryan even though his own advisers told him that Ryan was a bad choice? The question is vitally important because Dick Cheney has turned the vice-presidency into a position that can be more powerful than the presidency itself and it is therefore necessary to scrutinize both the decision and the selection process.
The calculation that is evidentlty responsible for the abrupt selection of Paul Ryan has confounded the pundits and exposed the tactics of the insiders who influence Romney's decisions.
When Mitt Romney's campaign spokesperson Andrea Saul said that a fired steel worker would have had access to health care if he had lived in Massachusetts, under Romney’s plan, the comment set off a firestorm in conservative circles.
Foaming around the mouth, Ann Coulter roared, “Anyone who donates to Mitt Romney, and I mean the big donors, ought to say if Andrea Saul isn’t fired and off the campaign tomorrow, they are not giving another dime, because it is not worth fighting for this man if this is the kind of spokesman he has."
Publicly, she demanded the head of Andrea Saul. Privately, the fanatics who rely on the Republican party to repeal Obamacare demanded the appointment of Paul Ryan, to make Mitt Romney worth supporting.
When the smoke had cleared, the unspoken truth emerged. Paul Ryan does not actually represent the Republican party. He represents the agenda of billionaires like the Koch brothers and his abrupt appointment is a preemptive, defacto disqualification and emasculation of a potential, Mitt Romney presidency. In other words, if he wins, Paul Ryan will steer the ship on behalf of the Tea Party agenda and Mitt Romney will salute the way Bush did when Dick Cheney was the self-appointed "adult" (Cheny's characterization) in the White House.
It is no surprise that the pundits are bemused and amused and the only people who do not share their perplexity are those who applaud the sugardaddy relationship that the exercise of power has developed.
Dick Cheney in fact said, "I can't think of a better choice for VP". Delighted by the selection of Paul Ryan, he said that he would make an excellent vice-president. What he meant of course is that the decision made Mitt Romney absolutely irrelevant, but we are not supposed to understand insider tactics.
On her official blog, Ann Coulter said nothing about the selection of Paul Ryan. Insider knowledge is not publicly exposed but her enthusiasm could not be contained and blogger silence was predictably broken when she used the media to praise the decision to appoint Ryan.
According to Ann Coulter, Mitt Romney’s decision to name Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate was a stellar decision. She claimed that the appointment of Paul Ryan will force the Democratic Party to defend “socialist policies.” What she did not understand is that the appointment of Paul Ryan did the exact opposite because her brand of anti-communist hysteria and fanaticism is about as effective as Donald Trump's claim that Barack Obama was born in Kenya.
The truth has to be decoded because people like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are so out of touch with reality they do not even understand the consequence of their own actions. Their public meltdown over the simple fact that Romney's spokesperson told the truth about Romney's record exposed the toxic paranoia that drives them and the urgency to appoint Paul Ryan offered a rare glimpse into their unauthorized capacity to influence political decisions.
They are not alone. The Koch brother agenda where billions of dollars have been wasted attacking Obama's commitment to provide more accessible healthcare, is also on their side. Regardless, the sudden appointment of Paul Ryan in effort to kill the truth about Mitt Romney is a desperate tactic that has alreay backfired because it has confirmed the simple fact that like Sarah Palin before him, Paul Ryan is merely riding the Tea Party bus and most people reject the fanaticism of that movement.
In the final analysis, Paul Ryan has seized control of the Republican agenda on behalf of the Tea Party and the obsession to repeal Obamacare is driving the agenda.
It is not difficult to understand the fact that the nuclear meltdown that Romney's heresy inspired is directly responsible for the appointment of Paul Ryan. In a typical presidential campaign, Romney would have announcd his vp pick a week before the Republican Convention to unveil the surprise and ride the crest of media attention into the convention. The strategy to bring drama to an otherwise staged convention and to build momentum going into the fall campaign is a good one. Andrea Saul triggered the desperate gambit that is responsible for the appointment of Paul Ryan, and now, there are no more surprises and there never will be because the lunacy of the Tea Party agenda has been fully exposed.
According to Ann Coulter, “He [Paul Ryan] is young and Catholic and Midwest. I really think the big thing with the Ryan pick is that it turns it into a 1980 Reagan election about ideas. Democrats can’t escape it. They’re going to have to scream about their socialist policies..."
Democrats are not screaming. They are laughing because Romney wanted to run a campaign focused entirely on the economy, and now that his agenda has been hijacked, it is all about the fact that Mitt Romney is no longer in charge.
The suspicion that Romney and Ryan are billionaire oligarch puppets has been confirmed and all the big donors need to be clearly reminded that like the rest of us, a single vote is their only entitlement.
