Joan Walsh: How Ryan hurts Romney

It’s an article of faith on the right that Mitt Romney may be destroying Paul Ryan’s national career, by muzzling him and keeping his far-right stands on Medicare, Social Security, federal spending and abortion secret from voters. Iowa GOP party chairman Craig Robinson shared his colorful appraisal with the New York Times Tuesday, “I hate to say this, but if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he’ll probably have to wash the stench of Romney off of him.”

(Robinson took to the pages of the Iowa Republican Wednesday to elaborate on his remarks, but all that really matters is this one line in his piece: “For the record, I was quoted accurately.”)

But it’s just as likely that Ryan is bringing down Romney’s presidential chances, too. In three key swing states, Ohio, Virginia and Florida, a new poll finds that voters overwhelmingly oppose Ryan’s plan to voucherize Medicare, and instead favor President Obama’s approach to the program and trust him to protect it. And the Catholic Wisconsin resident isn’t helping with Catholics or folks from Wisconsin – Obama’s taken a lead with both groups.

But it’s in older swing states that Ryan may be hurting, not merely not helping, Romney. A Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that Obama has a 17-point edge over Romney with all voters on who will best handle Medicare, his biggest advantage all year. Ohio voters favor Obama’s approach to Medicare by 19 points, Florida by 15 and Virginia by 13. Voters who call Medicare “extremely important” back Obama 59 percent to 36 percent, while those who say it’s less important favor Romney, 54 percent to 36 percent. (An earlier New York Times poll found similar results in Wisconsin.)

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http://www.salon.com/2012/09/27/how_ryan_hurts_romney/