What to Watch for As Joe Biden and Paul Ryan Square Off Thursday Night

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http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/what-watch-joe-biden-and-paul-ryan-square-thursday-night




There's some interesting context as Joe Biden and Paul Ryan square off tonight for the second of four debates between the two campaigns.

Based on Ryan's voting record, New York Times number-cruncher Nate Silver finds Paul Ryan to be the most conservative member of Congress to be picked as a running mate since at least 1900, and he'll debate just as the Romney campaign is shaking that Etch-a-Sketch and making a dramatic dive for the center. (Perhaps the most significant result of Romney's win in Denver last week is that it eased the pressure coming from his right flank and allowed him, finally, to make that pivot.)

Ryan was always a risky choice because of the severity of his brand of conservatism, and his eponymous plan to reshape the government into something like what it was before the New Deal. Earlier this year, Democratic operatives discovered something interesting about Paul Ryan's budget. The New York Times reported that when the details of his proposals were run past focus groups, they found that the plan is so cruel that voters “simply refused to believe any politician would do such a thing.”

We can expect Ryan to emulate Romney in the first debate, and insist that what he's spent years campaigning to achieve isn't a reflection of his true policy preferences. He will suggest that Biden is distorting his plans, and may also assure voters that he only sits at the bottom of the ticket and Romney would determine the agenda of his administration.

[lunatica]

1. Cruel is a very good description of Paul Ryan

which goes exactly with my other description of him as a con man. A man who will sweep in to town and romance the rich widow right off her feet, marry her and get his hands on her money and disappear, leaving her destitute and brokenhearted and humiliated.