August 30, 2012 by David K. Sutton
RNC – Paul Ryan’s Live Broadcast Attack Ad Against President Obama
Paul Ryan spent a lot of time talking smack last night during his Republican National Convention speech. He said President Obama has been all talk and no leadership, but Ryan offered nothing of substance to show how he and Mitt Romney would lead. Nothing. Just more “serious talk” from a “serious guy.” Really? Just because Ryan says we need to make hard decisions about things like Medicare, that means he knows what he’s talking about? That means a Romney administration will show leadership? I’m sorry, lead by example, not rhetoric. What is Paul Ryan’s record? He voted in favor of every single budget busting legislative initiative during George W. Bush’s presidency. This includes Bush tax cuts #1 and #2, Medicare Part D, TARP (financial bailout), and the two wars. Paul Ryan, Mr. Serious showed no leadership, he just fell inline with the rest of his fellow Republicans.
Paul Ryan said Obama blames President Bush for the economy. This simply isn’t true, but it is true that people do need to be reminded just how bad things were 4 years ago because Republicans and conservatives like Paul Ryan would like for us to forget about the “free market” policies that brought on the financial meltdown. It’s not blaming Bush to remind people how we got here and why we can’t go back to those policies. If we don’t learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over. Clearly Republicans have not learned a thing, and so they need to say things like “Obama blames Bush” as a way to deflect from the real problem: Republicans advocate the same set of policies (loose regulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, under-funded regulatory agencies) that led to the Great Recession.
Ryan offered no specifics last night, which comes as no surprise. It was a speech full of sweeping indictments of the Obama administration, most of which you could hear any night you look for a little fine comedy entertainment by tuning into Fox News. Ryan said a Romney administration would “lead with confidence and clarity,” but I think they first should lead with the truth. Real leadership doesn’t come in the form of pandering to your base or a weary electorate, while showering even more money on the wealthiest people in the country. Real leadership is sticking up for the disenfranchised, not advocating policies that would further erode the middle class, and recognizing that it is the entire country, every single American, who will grow the economy and create more jobs, not a few suits sitting in a board room tossing money at each other.
