and there s no march in washington saying that we need to change all of that. i m not going to go so far as to say that mr. ryan is a cancer, but i will say that he is deeply out of the mainstream. conservatives now have a voice on the ticket to deliver the agenda of the 1% in america. we now have somebody on a ticket who is us. somebody is on the ticket who can explain all of this, believes all of this in his heart, and in his soul. his name is paul ryan. conservatives believe this message is broad enough to work in a general election. we ll see. if people hear what paul ryan believes, they will vote for republicans? well, today, the romney campaign found out, well, it might not be that easy. let s go to the middle of the country at the iowa state fair. pretty american there, isn t it? paul ryan was shouted down by protesters telling ryan to stop the war on the middle class.
let s bring in joan walsh, editor at large, salon.com and author of the upcoming book what s the matter with white people? and e.j. dionne, author of the book our divided political heart. great to have both of you with us. joan, you first, no doubt, we have a distinction here. we have a choice. but is this the way ryan is going to be on the campaign trail? they can t define what s going on with medicare and medicaid and what the differences are between the two candidates. i m talking about the presidential candidate and vice presidential candidates, romney/ryan. yet when he s asked something in detail, is he campaigning in disguise? that was remarkable, i want to enjoy the fair. that was such a remark of entitlement, ed. you know, you really are pressed to discuss policy at state fairs when you re running for vice president. so it was one of those moments
he stood silent on the sidelines while all of this was going on. bottom line, this guy is an outsourcing, not a fighter for the workers, not a fighter for the middle class. he has no record of showing anything like that. for more, let s turn to james hoffa. internation brrth hood of teamsters and larry cohen, president of the communication workers for america. great to be here. let me just say that it has to be stated, president obama can t win without labor. the democrats can t win without labor. you have the infrastructure, you have the communication, you have the boos on the ground. now you also are facing the ticket, whether you agree with everything president obama has ever done for the labor, if you have any sins that need to be forgiven, now is kind of the time, isn t it, mr. hoffa? with this ticket, this is a radical push-back at labor, is it not? this is probably the most anti-labor slate you have ever seen before. romney/ryan is unbelievably anti-labor, romney is for
book our divided political heart. great to have both of you with us. joan, you first, no doubt, we have a distinction here. we have a choice. but is this the way ryan is going to be on the campaign trail? they can t define what s going on with medicare and medicare and what the differences are between the two candidates. i m talking about the presidential candidate and vice presidential candidates, romney/ryan. yet when he s asked something in detail, is he campaigning in disguise? that was remarkable, i want to enjoy the fair. that was such a remark of entitlement, ed. you know, you really are pressed to discuss policy at state fairs when you re running for vice president. so it was one of those moments where we really don t know what paul ryan is going to be on a national campaign. he grew up in janesville. he s liked by people in his community. he s gone to washington. he s got a very narrow purview. he s liked by the koch brothers. you know, he s got some friends in high places
medicare, what is going to happen there. and he s not definite about how he would help people in the worst drought in 50 years in this country. joan walsh, who is going to stand with this man on the campaign trail? if he s such a radical and it s in his what moderate republican is going to stand up there and say i can get independent voters with this guy at my side? they re going to be terrified. they are going to run away from him, and e.j. makes the point this was such a bold move bomb the man of mystery, mitt romney, who won t define anything and he s told us that, people might not vote for me if they knew what i was going to do, is now married to that man who carved out a far right program. does it help democrats? i think it does. what do you think? does it help democrats? is this the golden goose to carve up? i don t know if he s the golden goose. i don t believe in the gold standard, but i think he is of immense help in defining the issues. i think he really makes it