Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) predicted last Sunday on Fox News that Democrats were going to demagogue him and his historic 2012 budget proposal in order to assist their reelection chances next year.
On Friday's "Inside Washington," Newsweek's Evan Thomas not only agreed with Ryan, but also said, "The Democrats will now accuse the Republicans – it’s an old page in their playbook – of throwing Granny in the snow" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
EVAN THOMAS, NEWSWEEK: [Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-N.Y.)] is apt to be more strident about the big issue, the budget and the debt. And what I fear is going on here is the Democrats are just going to demagogue their way to reelection in 2012 for Obama because of what Ryan did, because of what we talked about. He did the brave thing with entitlements.
When Charles Krauthammer got his chance to speak, he not only agreed but also put a finer point on it:
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: The DNC right now is saying that the Ryan plan is going to kill Granny. Throwing her in the snow is too, is, is, is, it gives too much credit to the Ryan plan. This is going to be one of the most demagogic campaigns we have ever seen. I think it’s incredibly irresponsible, but I think it might actually work. I think that if you are a Democrat, you want to get reelected in 2012 as Obama does, I, I will bet he will sit back and ride the anti-Ryan demagoguery all the way into reelection.
If Thomas and Krauthammer agree, I guess it's official.
