Democrats would like nothing more than to reflexively paint Paul Ryan as a candidate who scares seniors, as someone who proverbially will throw “granny” off the cliff.
Yet recent polls — by mainstream media and left-leaning organizations, no less — indicate Ryan actually does extremely well with seniors.
In an ABC News/Washington Post poll, 28 percent of seniors viewed Ryan favorably while 28 percent viewed him unfavorably before Romney selected him to be his running mate. After his selection, 46% of those seniors now view him favorably while 28 percent still view him unfavorably. In just one weekend, Ryan has increased his favorability numbers among seniors by 14 percentage points, even as Democrats spent the weekend trying to demonize Ryan and his budget.
Public Policy Polling (PPP), the left-leaning outfit that does polling for the liberal website, Daily Kos, polled voters in Ohio over the weekend, tweeted that Ryan’s numbers in Ohio are actually best among seniors, with 38 percent of seniors viewing Ryan favorability as opposed to 29 percent who see him unfavorably. The full PPP poll will be released on Tuesday, but the tweet can be seen below.
Ryan’s favorability numbers in Ohio are actually *best* with seniors at 38/29
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) August 13, 2012
This should not be a surprise to the mainstream media. In 2011, a Gallup poll found that seniors preferred Ryan’s budget over Obama’s, despite what the mainstream media tried to lead Americans to believe. This is probably why CBS edited out the portion of its interview with Ryan and Romney on Sunday’s “60 Minutes” in which Ryan talked about how his mother was a Florida resident who was on Medicare. That portion of the interview was only available on CBS’s website and was cut from the national television broadcast.
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