Paul Ryan on political strife in Wisconsin: 'the new normal'

[hue]

By Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Congressman Paul Ryan told a California audience Tuesday that the furious political struggles and massive campaign spending in Wisconsin in 2011 are the “new normal” for this sharply divided battleground state, with its 10 electoral votes in play next year and the possibility of more recall fights.

"I keep telling my friends and supporters and family and others in Wisconsin, this is the new normal. We’re going to have this stuff for the next 14 months,” said Ryan after a health care speech at the conservative Hoover Institution, based at Stanford University.

Asked by someone in the audience about the budget and recall fights this year in Wisconsin, Ryan said:

“The reason you see so much of Wisconsin and Ohio on your TV is that our electoral votes are up for grabs. Wisconsin is the most closely divided state in the country … a Democrat has not won the presidency in the United States of America without winning Wisconsin since 1960. So this is more, I think, about the presidential election … in these sort of bellwether swing states like Ohio and Wisconsin than it is about anything else.”

Ryan was correct in pointing out that the last time a Democrat won the White House without winning Wisconsin was 1960, when Republican Richard Nixon won the state but lost the presidency to John F. Kennedy.

Ryan’s speech, a discussion of the current health care debate and health care proposals he has made in the past, can be found here. http://paulryan.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=261967

[Angry Dragon]

1. It is time to get rid of electoral votes then

make every vote count the same
I see no reason for the electoral college to exist in the day and time
it served a purpose and now it time for it to go

[midnight]

2. K&R