Naming Candidate Ryan

Mitt Romney has concluded that the only way to win the election is to prevent as many people as possible from voting for Barack Obama--not by convincing these people that he, Romney, would make a better President but by preventing them from voting at all.  His GOP supporters have facilitated this goal in a several swing states by passing voter-suppression--er, sorry, "Voter Fraud Prevention" laws, which will have the curious effect of keeping large numbers of people who, statistically speaking, are more likely to vote for President Obama out of the voting booth.  Well played, GOP.

In his latest masterful move of electoral jiujitsu, Romney has selected House-Elf Paul Ryan (R-Azkaban) as his running mate.  Sure, many observers feel that Romney has all but handed the election to President Obama: Rather than picking a safe, non-controversial running mate, Romney has selected the one man in all of Washington who cannot realistically distance himself from the Medicare-slashing, Social-Security destroying budget devised by. . . Rep. Paul Ryan.  (Then again, Mitt Romney has distanced himself as much as possible from the Massachusetts universal healthcare plan devised by none other than Governor Mitt Romney, so I guess anything's possible.)  But Ryan's unelectability may just be the point!

Romney and his supporters have already done a great deal to make sure that people who want to go to the polls and vote for Obama can't do so.  But what about the rest of the electorate who aren't minorities or poor or college students?  How can Romney dissuade the solid middle-class liberal from voting?  Simple!  Make the likelihood of his election seem SO unlikely that we don't bother to go out and vote.  Lest you think this far-fetched, as soon as I heard of Ryan's nomination, I chuckled, shook my head, and made plans to get an all-day massage on November 6th.  Thankfully, I realized in time, that's just what they WANT me to do!

Be alert, people.  Complacency is dangerous.