From Rachel Maddow's blog, here's the template to take back the House and hold on to the Senate. Thank you Paul Ryan. Thank you Mitt Romney.
New Dem ad a template for all races this year. Every Republican now has Paul Ryan as a running-mate (video): youtube.com/watch?v=sR5IJB…
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) August 16, 2012
My transcription:
NARRATOR: On Medicare congressman Benishek's gone fishing. And he's got a whopper.The DCCC may just end up going all in on this strategy all across the country, just as the RNC went all in on essentially the same issue--ending Medicare--during the 2010 midterms.DAN BINISHEK: "Privatizing Social Security and Medicare is the only way to do it."
DAN BINISHEK: "Phasing out of the Medicare and Social Security plan."
NARRATOR (reading newspaper headline): Benishek's essentially voted to end Medicare. Forcing seniors to pay over $6000 more a year.
DAN BINISHEK: "Privatizing Social Security and Medicare is the only way to do it."
NARRATOR: Congressman Benishek. Fishing in Troubled Waters.
HIGHLY-CAFFEINATED VOICEOVER: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is responsible for the content of this advertisement.
The DCCC is spending more than $73,000 to air the ad against Benishek, and has reserved $515,000 in airtime, according to the AP.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...Benishek will face off against former State Rep. Gary McDowell (D), who he beat in 2010. His district, encompassing the Upper Peninsula and part of the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, is competitive. Conservative Democrat Bart Stupak represented it until 2011, when he retired.
A new poll suggests that Romney's choice of Ryan has made Medicare a top voter issue:
U.S. voters see Medicare as a top election issue - pollhttp://in.reuters.com/...WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Medicare has become a top healthcare issue in the U.S. presidential election, surpassing the controversy over President Barack Obama's healthcare law, according to a poll conducted just as Republican Mitt Romney pushed the issue to the forefront of the campaign with his choice of running mate.
On Saturday, Romney announced he had picked Representative Paul Ryan, a lawmaker whose plan to cut billions of dollars from the U.S. deficit included transforming the costly, but popular, healthcare program for the elderly.
The nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation said on Thursday that 73 percent of respondents polled in the days around the announcement described Medicare as "very important" or "extremely important" to their votes. That included large majorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans.
The Kaiser foundation said a separate survey conducted a week earlier found that 58 percent of adults - including 55 percent of Republicans - favored keeping Medicare as it is today with all seniors receiving the same insurance benefits.