What The Polls Tell Us
American voters have consistently said the economy, jobs and the budget deficit are priorities, in polls done by a variety of organizations, and will influence their vote in November.
Gallup shows that 92 percent of Americans rate creating jobs as either extremely important or very important for the next president to focus on as priority, 87 percent say reducing corruption in the federal government and 86 percent say reducing the federal deficit.
Recently USA TODAY/Gallup found that Mitt Romney "scores a significant advantage" over Barack Obama when it comes to managing the economy, reducing the federal budget deficit and creating jobs and by 2-to-1, 63 percent to 29 percent, Romney's private business experience would "cause him to make good decisions, not bad ones, in dealing with the nation's economic problems over the next four years."
Last but not least, polling also shows that over 60 percent of voters believe the country is on the wrong track, with only 31 percent saying it is going in the right direction.
While polling is simply a snapshot of how respondents feel at the moment, consistent findings over long periods of times show patterns and hold excellent predictive value.
The Romney/Ryan 2012 Ticket
42 year old Representative Ryan has been reelected in a Democratic district of Wisconsin and has been serving in that position since 1998. Ryan won reelection in his southeastern Wisconsin district with 68 percent of the vote in 2010 and with 64 percent in 2008.
What makes Ryan a particularly good choice for Romney and which shows Romney is paying attention to what voters want, is that Ryan is also the House Budget Committee Chairman and is known throughout Congress as a "policy wonk."
Politicians constantly tell voters that certain issues need to be addressed, that we need to get our fiscal house in order, we need to lower our deficit and debt, but since hard decisions have to be made, spending cuts have to be implemented and reforms must be passed, rarely does a politician actually produce a plan, explain it and take the time to travel, hold townhalls and correct misrepresentations of their plans.
Paul Ryan did.
Ryan's plan became a lightening rod and Democrats screamed that he was trying to end Medicare, despite fact checkers calling them false or pants on fire liars, nine different times for those claims and dubbing it the "Lie of the year 2011.".
It didn't stop liberals then and it is not stopping them now that Romney has announced Ryan as his running mate.
Instantly the dog whistle was blown and like mindless puppets, the same scare tactics are being screamed, key words like "Ayn Rand", ending Medicare as we know it, extremist, radical". The New York Times called Ryan's budget plan "‘the most extreme budget plan passed by a House of Congress in modern times."
By choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney has chosen to not run from the radical, extreme label, but to embrace it. To make the argument that it is going to take an extreme change, a radical approach to put America's fiscal house in order, to put people to work, to lower our debt and deficit, and to turn around the economy.
What Romney and Ryan are betting on is that Americans aren't just saying they want jobs, economy and federal deficit to be a priority, but that they actually mean it.
If the lines outside the campaign rallies and the standing room only and the thousands upon thousands of people standing outside the events are anything to go by, that is a bet they are going to win.
Photos below from Legal Insurrection, North Carolina Romney/Ryan rallies:
More photos from NC at the link above and more from the Wisconsin Romney/Ryan rally found here.
Side Note- Seems Paul Ryan has a sense of humor to boot, via Stamford Advocate:
Romney was the subject of an April Fools prank in which Ryan played a role. Romney showed up at a supposed campaign event where he heard Ryan calling him "the next president of the United States" — only to find the room nearly empty.
Romney/Ryan 2012 campaign gear found here.
