Mittens/Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver

At least that’s what sources say. If so, that the Republican campaign is class warfare on behalf of the plutocracy has just become more explicit.

A very good summary of Ryan here if you scroll down, with the caveat that it’s also important to emphasize that implying that Ryan cares about the deficit is conceding too much. He cares about upper-class tax cuts, he cares about funding stupid wars, he cares about slashing any federal program that might benefit a non-affluent person, but he doesn’t care at all about deficits.

In theory, this should be a net negative for the Romney ticket. To be successful, contemporary conservatives need to focus on generalities about “taxes” and “spending”; when you actually get to specifics, their plan of slashing federal spending on health care, Social Security, and other important programs to finance upper-class tax cuts is exceptionally unpopular. Ryan still cheats by not specifying cuts a lot, but his budget should have enough detail to hang the GOP. But whether the Obama campaign will do this effectively, or how effective counterattacks will be given that any attempt to point out the actual consequences of Ryan and Romney’s McKinleynomics will be scored as a million Pinocchios setting a million pants on fire is less clear.