‘Occupy the Truth’ rally in Cleveland, Ohio, Aug. 18, 2012
Photo by Pat Dooley (Hat-tip: Instapundit)
Iowahawk’s observation — “Paul Ryan represents Obama’s most horrifying nightmare: math” — is well on its way to becoming world famous, and may yet become the final epitaph on Obama’s presidency. As I remarked Thursday:
If voters can be made to focus on the numbers — including the administration’s record deficit spending and historically high unemployment — it seems unlikely that the Democrat incumbent can be re-elected. And polls indicate that the “Ryan Effect” may already be making a difference. Not only does the Romney-Ryan ticket now lead both the Gallup and Rasmussen national tracking polls, but the latest Ohio polls also indicate a bounce for the Republicans since Ryan was announced as Romney’s running mate.
The Democrat-Media Complex has expended a lot of effort trying to convince us that Mitt Romney made a bad choice, and that the selection of Paul Ryan is a mistake. But the bold truth is always better politics than a timid evasion, and telling the truth — that Obama’s policies are actually a threat to the Medicare benefits of current retirees — is what the Ryan pick is all about. Evidence of the “Ryan Effect” includes the huge enthusiastic crowds that have begun showing up at GOP rallies, including Saturday’s unprecedented turnout at The Villages in Florida:
I have no idea how many people were there, I’ve never seen a crowd that large at any of the events I’ve attended at The Villages, and the crowd was not disappointed.
Instapundit: “These guys don’t seem to be following the script that the Dems and media had written for them.” Exactly so. One of the great secrets to clear-thinking conservatism is being able to tune out the disinformation emanating from the liberal media — and from Republicans who have internalized a negative self-image based on the liberal worldview. The idea that retirees in Florida are so ignorant and so vulnerable to the Democrats’ “Mediscare” demagoguery that they will automatically reject any attempt at entitlement reform is part of the GOP’s negative self-image that cannot be defeated unless it is directly confronted.
Democrats succeed by distractions and distortions, and we have become so accustomed to this that we often don’t even notice it. Generic promotional boilerplate from ABC News:
Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter and Romney campaign senior adviser Kevin Madden face off on the latest battles in the 2012 presidential campaign, Sunday on “This Week.”
Mitt Romney and his new running mate Rep. Paul Ryan hit the campaign trail this week, looking to gain momentum with just over one week before the Republican convention in Tampa. Has Ryan’s selection energized the ticket and galvanized conservative supporters for the fall? Or will continued scrutiny of Ryan’s Medicare proposals and Romney’s tax returns hurt their campaign for undecided voters?
The alternatives presented here are dishonest to the point of being counterfactual, and give us a glimpse into the liberal mindset.
First of all, there is no question — none at all — that Ryan’s selection has “energized the ticket.” I don’t need any polls or pundits to tell me this, because I’ve seen it with my own eyes, live and in person, in the thousands of fired-up Republicans who flocked to see Romney-Ryan in Manassas, Romney in Chillicothe and Ryan at Miami (Ohio) University. The fact that ABC News poses this as a question can only be understood as a bizarre attempt to confuse readers.
The second alternative presented by ABC News, of factors that might “hurt their campaign for undecided voters,” is actually a repetition of Obama campaign talking points. It is only Democrats, and their friends in the media, who believe that “Romney’s tax returns” are a legitimate issue, or that “Ryan’s Medicare proposals” are a liability with “undecided voters.” The “continued scrutiny” of which ABC News speaks is coming entirely from journalists who are echoing and amplifying the Democrats’ message.
Where is the ABC News story about the threat to Obama’s re-election posed by “continued scrutiny” of the Fast and Furious scandal?
(Crickets chirping.)
At some point, blatant dishonesty from the media loses its effectiveness for the simple reason that people just aren’t as stupid as the media think they are. Once people start figuring out they are being scammed and hustled, once they see for themselves the yawning chasm between the media’s misrepresentations and the actual truth, the media constructed illusion rapidly collapses.
The White House’s attempt to defend Joe Biden’s “chains” remark is doomed to fail for this very reason: People can see for themselves what Biden said — how he said it, and to whom that “y’all” was directed — and it is impossible to evade the self-evident truth.
Two weeks from today, Sept. 2, Romney’s lead in the polls will be a solid fact that the media won’t be able to ignore. Then we’ll see a lot of stories about how Team Obama plans to mount a comeback — casting Democrats in the underdog role, even though anyone can go back and see that, in early August, the same media were trumpeting polls that allegedly showed Obama a shoo-in for re-election.
On Aug. 12, the Real Clear Politics average of national polls showed Obama leading by 4.7 points. That lead has now narrowed to 3.4 points, despite all the confusion caused by the disinformation emitted from the Democrat-Media Complex.
We are still a week away from the Republican National Convention in Tampa and, by the time that concludes on Aug. 30, we will see a steady stream of polls that show the Romney-Ryan ticket moving ahead. So when the Democrats convene Sept. 3 in Charlotte, Obama will be on the defensive, trailing in the RCP average for the first time all year. And what then? An avalanche of lies.
Democrats will unleash smear-and-fear tactics in a campaign of raw dishonesty unprecedented in American political history. The only question is to what extent the liberal media will cooperate in Team Obama’s attempt to decieve their way to re-election. During the final 10 weeks of this campaign, journalists will find themselves forced to choose between their political loyalty to the liberal cause, and their professional obligation to the truth.
The Democrat-Media Complex would be unwise to risk what remains of their credibility on politically convenient falsehoods.
Liars cannot succeed, when the truth goes viral.
Update (Smitty): Thank you, Instapundit, for not pussyfooting around. Except for when you do:
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