Sunday, August 12, 2012

The @WSJ will be live-blogging Romney and Ryan on 60 Minutes at 7 pm ET. Should be a good one

The  will be live-blogging Romney and Ryan on 60 Minutes at 7 pm ET. Should be a good one for analysis.
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6:22 PM - 12 Aug 12 via Safari on iOS · Details
  • LIVE BLOGGING
  • August 12, 2012, 4:59 PM

Live Blog: Romney, Ryan on 60 Minutes at 7 p.m. ET

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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Republican Vice Presidential hopeful Paul Ryan
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his vice presidential choice, Rep.Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, are appearing on CBS News’s “60 Minutes” Sunday in their first interview together since Mr. Ryan joined the ticket.
Mr. Romney announced the pick on Saturday morning in Norfolk, Va., and the two men have been drawing enthusiastic crowds at rallies over the weekend. Mr. Ryan’s plans on entitlement reform are popular among the conservative base, but make him a target for attacks from Democrats.
The interviewer is Bob Schieffer. Share your thoughts in our comment section, or via Twitter using #electionwsj
  • Welcome to our live blog. Kristina Peterson will be our main blogger of the interview. We won't be kicking off for a bit, but in the meantime, you can check our election news "stream" at http://WSJ.com/ElectionsLive with all the news and features of the day, plus relevant tweets and photos -- works particularly nicely on mobile.
  • Just In: We have a little action sooner than we expected. CBS has released some excerpts, and we will get those up in a moment or two.
  • As we take a look at those, here is what President Barack Obama has to say about the pick, as reported within the past hour: “Just yesterday, my opponent chose his running mate, the ideological leader of  Republicans in Congress. Mr. Paul Ryan. I want to congratulate Mr. Ryan.  I know him, I welcome him to the race. He is a decent man, he is a family man, he is an articulate spokesman for Governor Romney's vision but it is a vision that I fundamentally disagree with."
  • In excerpts of the "60 Minutes" interview with GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and his newly named VP pick Paul Ryan, the pair defend Ryan’s overhaul of Medicare. Romney is quick to point out the two aren’t planning to change Medicare for current seniors.
  • “My mom is a Medicare senior in Florida,” Ryan says in the interview. “Our point is we need to preserve their benefits, because government made promises to them.” But in order to afford that, “you must reform it for those of us who are younger,” he says.
  • A brief primer on how Ryan would change Medicare: his plan would give Americans a choice to enroll in a Medicare-type plan. The government would subsidize part of the payments for private-run insurance plans. Republicans call it “premium support.” Democrats call it vouchers.  Here is our recent explainer.
  • Share your thoughts in our comment section, or via Twitter using #electionwsj
  • Here’s what Mitt Romney had to say on what he’s discussed with his new running mate on Medicare: “What Paul Ryan and I have talked about is saving Medicare, is providing people greater choice in Medicare, making sure it's there for current seniors. No changes, by the way, for current seniors, or those nearing retirement. But looking for young people down the road and saying, ‘We're going to give you a bigger choice.’ In America, the nature of  this country has been giving people more freedom, more choices. That's how we make Medicare work down the road.”
  • Here’s what the budget architect himself had to say on his own much-maligned on one side, much-beloved on the other plan: “My mom is a Medicare senior in Florida. Our point is we need to preserve their benefits, because government made promises to them that they've organized their retirements around. In order to make sure we can do that, you must reform it for those of us who are younger. And we think these reforms are good reforms, that have bipartisan origins.”
  • CBS has also released video of the excerpts they released. The full show is expected to air at 7 p.m.

  • Fashion twins already -- Romney and Ryan appear on “60 Minutes” wearing nearly-identical blue checked shirts and blue blazers with an American flag pin on their respective left lapels, according to aphoto of the interview posted on the CBS website. During Saturday’s campaign appearances, only Mr. Romney was wearing a tie, but for their Sunday interview both politicians lose the necktie. Is this the Ryan effect?

  • As we wait for CBS to wrap up golf coverage, at which point we may get more excerpts on the evening news, it’s worth noting that four of the CBS News’ five most popular stories right now are connected to Romney’s vice-presidential pick. The fifth? A Pennsylvania woman accused of killing her fiancé on their wedding day.

  • Share your thoughts in our comment section, or via Twitter using #electionwsj

    • 6:34 pm
    • Democrats, GOP Spar Over Ryan
    • by Kristina Peterson
    • Add a Comment
    CBS: still golf. But here’s what lawmakers, strategists and other wonky types had to say about the Ryan pick this morning. In a nutshell, the GOP thinks he’s a bold choice. Democrats seem eager to pounce on his Medicare plan and lack of foreign-policy experience. Both sides agree his entry sharpens the contrast between the two campaigns.


  • Anyone nonchalant about missing the prime time coverage of the Olympics closing ceremony to watch the Romney-Ryan interview, know this: the Spice Girls DO perform and  London’s Mayor Boris Johnson is spotted dancing to them. On the royalty watch, Harry and Kate are spotted by eagle-eyed WSJ reporters, but no Prince William in sight.

  • It’s looking like we’re not going to get any more sneak peeks of the Romney-Ryan interview as the golfers blithely continue to play golf. “60 Minutes” is scheduled to start at  7 p.m. ET, but we don’t yet know when the joint appearance from Messrs. Romney and Ryan will begin. Standing by.

  • Golf awards ceremony suggests “60 Minutes” is imminent. Meanwhile, Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, weighs in on the Ryan pick on Twitter tonight: “Who is ideological? Can we now have a civilized conversation about solutions?”

  • "60 Minutes" begins!

  • We just got a blizzard of little snippets from the interview. When asked what his role in the campaign will be, Ryan says, “I’m going to help win this race.”

  • Share your thoughts in our comment section, or via Twitter using #electionwsj

  • In an email from a Romney fundraising committee, Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) lauds the former Massachusetts governor for making “a truly inspired choice” in picking Ryan as his running mate. Rubio, once considered a contender for the VP job, calls Ryan a “courageous reformer who understands our nation’s challenges, has proposed bold policy solutions to solve them, and has shown the courage to stand up to President Obama and other Washington politicians trying to tear him down.”

  • Romney says he didn’t make up his mind on Ryan until Aug. 1, though he’d spent time with Ryan on the campaign trail. “I was impressed with his understanding of the issues we’ve been facing,” Romney says. The two met last Sunday “and we sat down and made it happen,” Romney says.

  • Romney makes clear he thinks Ryan is qualified to serve as president, if need be. “Paul could – if necessary – become president,” he says. No one’s confusing Paul Ryan with Sarah Palin.

    • 7:27 pm
    • Popping the VP Question
    • by Kristina Peterson
    • Add a Comment
    It almost sounds like a proposal: Bob Schieffer asks Ryan what Romney said when he popped the VP question. “He essentially said that we share the same values,” Ryan said. Romney said their experiences would complement each other. “I said yes!” Ryan says.

  • After tonight, you’re not going to see Ryan with Romney very often. “We’re going to split up more often than not,” Ryan says. Until now the campaign’s been two versus one. Now it’s two on two.

  • Share your thoughts in our comment section, or via Twitter using #electionwsj

  • So what would a Vice President Paul Ryan do exactly? Romney says he’d use Ryan to spearhead efforts in areas he has expertise in and passion for. We read that as BUDGET. Romney also says he’d take advantage of Ryan’s expertise in navigating the ways of the Capitol and its inhabitants. Ryan would have a role “in helping shepherd legislation on the Hill,” he says.

  • Romney leaps in when it comes to taxes on the wealthiest: “Fairness dictates that the highest income people should pay the greatest share of taxes, and -- and they do.” His tone is very careful. Meanwhile, Ryan says he plans to release the same number of years of tax returns as Romney: two.

  • Parsing Ryan’s tax comments a little further: while he says he plans to release two years of tax returns, he ducks the question of how many years he gave Romney to scrutiny. The vetting process was “very exhaustive,” he says, but doesn’t specify how many years of returns he handed over beyond “several.”

  • A final point on Romney's tax comments. He says he wouldn't propose shrinking the share of taxes that the wealthiest Americans currently pay: "If you look at the top 1% or 5% or quartile, whatever, they pay the largest share of taxes. And that's not something which I would propose making smaller." But Mr. Romney has already said he intends to reduce income tax rates across the board by 20%, offsetting the cuts by eliminating various tax breaks he hasn't identified yet.
    It's hard to see how he's going to do all that at once, though. A study by the Tax Policy Center concluded that even if his plan was written to benefit low-income Americans as much as possible, it would still "provide large tax cuts to high-income households, and increase the tax burdens on middle- and/or lower-income taxpayers." This hasn't gone unnoticed by the Obama campaign, which has already rolled out ads inspired by the study.

  • The interview's a wrap. Romney and Ryan showed an easy camaraderie in what looks to be one of their rare joint appearances on the campaign trail. But their comments didn't resolve some lingering questions over Romney's tax plan and just how many years of tax returns he requested from his running mate. Thanks for joining us and visit wsj.com for the latest election news and analysis.

Posted by Robby Ball at 5:43 PM