Clearly, my visit to the Iowa State Fair should have lasted a bit longer, as evidenced by this report from the Iowa City Patch:
A protester disguised as a Mitt Romney supporter rushed the stage Monday as new vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan was speaking — and being heckled — in front of about 1,000 people at the Iowa State Fair.
The woman had been wearing a Romney tee-shirt before Ryan took the stage about 1 p.m.
The Wisconsin congressman had been speaking for only a couple of minutes when the woman jumped on the stage and started to shout about stopping the war on the middle class.
An Iowa State Trooper jumped on stage after her and walked her out of the area. Troopers took at least one other person from the crowd.
Ryan moved aside while the trooper removed the woman.
“We are used to this in Wisconsin,” Ryan said to applause. Protesters heckled him at various times throughout his talk in what could fairly be described as a mixed but largely hostile crowd.
“Mixed but largely hostile crowd” may turn out to represent the overall reaction of swing voters to Ryan’s act, but there’s plenty of time to determine if that is the case. Speaking of bad timing, my blogging was interrupted by a quickly scheduled appearance on Warren Olney’s fine PRI talk show, “To the Point,” where I was opposite Jennifer Rubin, who was in her inimitable Maximum Audacious Spin Mode (Romney’s been incredibly specific on policy from Day One, Ryan’s never said entitlement reform was key to economic growth, there not a single poll showing his budget’s unpopular, etc., etc.). Towards the end, when Rubin referred to some statement I made about the Ryan Budget as “a lie,” I damn near started hyperventilating, and even forgot to mock her claim last week that Bill Clinton backed up Romney’s mendacious welfare ad.
Next time I’m dealing with Rubin, I’m going to keep an inhaler close by.
UPDATE: After looking at the comments here, I believe a clarification is in order: I didn’t say I did poorly in exchanges with Jennifer Rubin on “To the Point;” I just said I got rushed and breathless. The show’s online if you have the time and inclination to listen and judge for yourself.
