I’m not on twitter, but I looked up Ross Douthat’s feed. In one tweet Douthat argued that Ryan was an answer to a question the median voter wasn’t asking. According to Douthat, the problem wasn’t that Romney “lacked vision” but that persuadable middle-class voters didn’t think Romney was on their side. There is a lot to that, but one reason it was tough for voters to warm to Romney was because wasn’t saying much that was explaining why they would do better under Romney aside from some “I love free markets” pap.
Over on Fox News Joe Trippi was arguing that the tax issue (analyses of the Ryan budget and Romney tax plan) would hurt the Romney-Ryan ticket. Maybe. Here is one way to play it:
1. The most recent Obama budget raises marginal tax rates on investment and small business in a fragile economy. We still go broke. The Obama budget raises taxes and hurts the economy now, and doesn’t even solve our budget issues. It doesn’t even come close. The Obama budget is to raise taxes now and raise taxes even more after the election. Either that or go bankrupt. That is a pretty good argument for Romney-Ryan.
2. The Republicans should keep their alternative tax plan fairly vague. Cut tax expenditures that benefit particular industries. Cap the value of tax deductions that disproportionately benefit high earners. Keep tax rates as low as possible on everybody but create a tax code that gives less to the connected.
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