Tone matters: Why liberals will have difficulty portraying Ryan as radical

During the 2008 election, conservatives tried their darnedest to convince the American public that Barack Obama was radical. They pointed to his work as a Saul Alinsky-inspired community organizer; his background in Chicago politics; his associations with the likes of Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi and Jeremiah Wright; his liberal policy positions; and the fact that his voting record was rated the most liberal in the Senate by National Journal. In the end, their efforts failed. Many conservatives like to pin the blame on a complicit media or a weak-kneed McCain campaign. The honest truth, though, is that a big reason why the American public didn’t perceive Obama as a radical was that he didn’t come across that way. Whenever he spoke, gave interviews, or debated, he was calm and reasonable sounding. He wasn’t a wild-eyed. He didn’t use extremist language. So, conservative warnings about him often fell on deaf ears. I suspect that liberals will run into similar problems if they think they’re going to convince people that Paul Ryan is a radical.