The left will have to do better than this. Not only is West predictably unperturbed by the heckling but the crowd is overwhelmingly on his side. You’d think progressives would be out in force to try to embarrass a tea-party all-star, but no. In fact, see the woman being hauled away by security at the end? That’s Nicole Sandler, formerly of … Air America. When the big dissident presence at a rally is a host from a defunct radio network, you’ve got yourself an optics problem.

Read this Andrew Stiles post at NRO arguing that the public might be more open to Ryan’s budget than conservatives fear. It’s not that they’re suddenly gung ho for Medicare reform — even Boehner’s worried enough about that to have told ABC he’s “not wedded” to Ryan’s plan if a better one comes along — but they are starting to absorb the fact that entitlement spending at current levels means a fiscal crisis soon. Fully 67 percent expect it to hit within the next 10 years, thanks no doubt to growing awareness about the strain from Baby Boomer enrollment. This likely won’t be the last clip we see of a Republican with the crowd heavily behind him. Click the image to watch.