I’m sure that some on Fox News, some conservative bloggers, and Rush and Sean will say this is just peachy and that it’ll help Mitt Romney. I truly don’t think so. Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan was booed at the annual AARP conference when he said Romney-Ryan would repeal Obamacare. This is what some conservatives want but Romney-Ryan already have (presumably) conservative voters. This imagery will reinforce existing Obama campaign charges about Romney-Ryan. And when the issue is raised by Barack Obama or Joe Biden again some voters who’ve seen it will remember it.
It’s high concept imagery: Ryan calling to repeal Obamacare before an audience of seniors. It’s also the kind of snippet cable loves so it’ll be played over and over and over. It communicates:
*Camp Romney is not winning the case with some of these voters.
*Camp Romney will have problems with these voters.
*To seniors, if the others are so upset and booing there must be something to be concerned about here.
Paul Ryan took shots at President Obama’s health care law today, as he tried to explain and defend the GOP presidential ticket’s proposals to dramatically overhaul Medicare.
His remarks were met with a smattering of boos as he criticized the national health care law in front of seniors gathered for the AARP conference in New Orleans.
Earlier in the day, the audience heard from President Obama, who charged Republicans with trying to cut back on popular entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security in order to finance tax cuts for the wealthy.
At times, the reaction to Ryan’s remarks sounded as though he walked into a lion’s den. He was booed at his first mention of GOP plans to repeal “Obamacare,” saying the law represents “the worst of both worlds.”
“First it funnels $716 billion out of Medicare to pay for a new entitlement we didn’t even ask for,” the Wisconsin congressman said. “Second, it puts 15 unelected bureaucrats in charge of Medicare’s future.”
The $716 billion is reduced government spending on Medicare over 10 years that is being used to pay for Obama’s health care law. Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, included the same figure in his budgets but now supports Romney on restoring that funding
.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.