Also over at The New Republic, Noam Scheiber shows how the Ryan selection has been a drag on the GOP ticket. The simple reason: His Medicare proposals have so scared seniors that they are turning to Obama. Seniors have always been the toughest demographic for Obama, but he is now leading or running even with them in key swing states. Romney needs to rack up huge majorities among seniors to offset Obama's lead among young voters. This, more than anything, explains why the election is fast slipping out of Romney's grasp.
There is one other aspect to this that warrants attention and makes Romney's climb even steeper. He can run ads, he can go on the stump and say that he will not change Medicare for seniors. But, on Medicare, seniors trust the AARP more than they do a political ad or a stump speech. And, seniors are not selfish - they like their own Medicare but they want their kids to have it too.
I will have more on the entitlement issue another day. One thing is clear. The habit of some libertarian-leaning GOPers like Ryan to think entitlement is a cuss word is not shared by the voters they most need.
