Liberals who are “giddy”at the prospects of Mitt Romney’s selection of Wisconsin CongressmanPaul Ryan are in for a rude and sober awakening when they realize thestrategic genius behind the decision.
Team Romney’s strategy? Lure the Obama campaign into attacking Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity”deficit reduction plan as a means to frame the 2012 election as abattle over the economic consequences of debt and deficits. If Obamastrategists David Axelrod and David Plouffe take the bait, Mitt Romneywill win.
When the Obama campaign and its surrogates run retreads of the infamous “throw grandma off the cliff”Medi-scare ads against the Ryan plan, Team Romney will run theidentical ad and say “Obama’s reckless spending and deficit spendinghave already driven America’s economic future over the cliff.”
When the Obama campaign claims that the Ryan plan paves a “path toprosperity” for the big insurance companies, the Romney campaign willcounter that Obamacare has already paved a trillion dollar “path to prosperity” for Obama’s big insurance company cronies.
When the Obama campaign alleges that the Ryan plan will “end Medicareas we know it,” the Romney campaign will fire back that Obama’saddition of $5,027,761,476,484.56 to the national debt has already ended Medicare as we know it.
Punch after punch, jab after jab, every Obama attack on the Ryanapproach to reducing debt will allow the Romney camp to frame and cementObama’s ruinous spending explosion–as well as its disastrous effectson the economic wasteland America has become under Obama’s leadership.
To see how devastating such policy pivots will be, just take a look at page fiveof Ryan’s Path to Prosperity plan. There, Ryan contrasts Obama’s debtexploding vision for America with his vision for fiscal responsibility. It’s persuasion on steroids.
Will Obama be foolish enough to attack Romney and Ryan on an issuethat puts debts and deficits front and center? Republicans could onlybe so lucky.