Page 2 - Ryan Pick News Today

Asked about the paul ryan plan to transform mediciare, its no surprise because thats about the same number who told quinnipiac in may of last year the exact same thing. joining us now from washington is dana milbank and jared bernstein, an msnbc contributor and former economic adviser to the vice president. good afternoon. dana, immediately after the ryan pick was announced, now wrote paul ryans affect on mitt romney would be quote the effect of a ball and chain. how is that holding up. you wrot...

>> thank you. uma: when you see the polls at the moment, latest polls in swing states what jumps out at you knowing the race is tightening up? >> the biggest thing that jumps out at me all the new swing states we thought a little while ago were pretty safe for president obama. so the race is becoming a little more competitive for mitt romney. and that is probably good if youre republican because romney was trailing in the electoral college. but were talking now about las vegas as a swing state. ...

Romney ryan plan to cut education. and i think ultimately, the ryan pick has taken the republicans off message. instead of focusing on the economy where they would like to have a debate were talking about medicare, were talking about abortion, were talking about womens right to choose, not simply reproductive and health care choices and economic opportunity. i think that could cost him florida. the problem with that is, if romney does not win florida, he has to win every other battleground state...

This campaign spending. >> im with you on this, bill. fred, do you believe days of bounce s considering where we ae in the campaign and how well defined the campaign apparatus is, those days are gone? >> if you have a bounce for more than 30 minutes, youve done a good job. i think in terms of the ryan pick, its late august and the ryan pick did help mitt romney energize the republican base. >> well go through a couple things. we tested 15 traits between obama and romney. obama led on 12 of them....

You as much as the hard and fast issues. obama is leading romney in all the gut check questions and i think with women, what akin does, throws that seed of doubt, yes, im not happy with the president, but if i -- if they make the connection if i put romney in charge it puts all those republicans in charge, do i want to go there, have that conversation about my body, about abortion, i think that -- thats the fear of the romney camp. >> would he have done better to have condi rice at his side? she...

Paul ryan more likely, less likely on helping romney and comparing it for palin, biden, edwards, lieberman and cheney. all of the other ones i mentioned added a plus factor to that nominee when they were named. paul ryan did not. what do you explain -- why do you think thats the case? >> heres what he added. if you look at mitt romneys personal feeling thermometer of republicans, its the highest its ever been at 74% positive. republicans have an intensity advance in ter advantage. we are watchin...

Platform. they will have the language in the platform that bans abortion in the case of rape. you hope they have todd akin to kick around in the race. >> that bill would redefine rape. they call it forceable rape. i wonder, shira, what is the likelihood this is going to stick or hurt paul ryan? >> i dont know it will hurt paul ryan that much in the long term. a lot of republican members signed on to the bill you just mentioned. >> only one is running for vice president. >> that is absolutely a g...

What energized the author here. and its clear that the ryan pick has energized the republican base, there is no doubt. look at that rally youre about to show in new hampshire? there are a lot of people there. its a swing state and they are very enthusiastic about mitt romney. now whats it doing with the independent voters that both sides are fighting for? its a khra sha cliche to say it but we just dont know. well know later. martha: one of the biggest messages that they need to work on, one of ...

Them obama is slightly ahead. so he is very close to taking this thing. he only needs if he can keep, ohio, in miss column it would be -- there is pretty much no way romney can get there. i know karl has some sets of states that would make up for ohio but ohio now ohio and i think virginia become very critical. >> chris: bill there is a lot of talk and you heard it especially this week among pollsters when you drill down into the numbers less than 5%, some people say 3% of voters who are truly u...

Ryan pick shifts the issue area to medicare. you know, looking back, are they going to wish they had these 25 days back in talking about the economy, in trying to make the case that they have a better economic? the romney campaign will argue, hey, were already winning that. we can talk about other issues. but it seems as if, if you ask the obama campaign, hey, would you like to take 25 days off from talking about the economy, theyd have said yes. >> do you not argue, again, somebody whos aligned...