I think (I hope, at any rate) that the urban vs. rural division that politicians have long exploited is finally reaching the end of its half life. Most successful presidential candidates have made the most of their "small town" background, whether real or contrived, since the frontier closed in 1890; the only exceptions being FDR, JFK, and Obama.

I don't think it's meant to be a dog whistle for minorities, especially when you consider that most white urban dwellers lean liberal anyway, and have for generations. But it is meant to evoke nostalgia for those places where everyone looks, acts, and thinks the same way. Conservatism is about conformity, first and foremost.

Ryan's just going with what's tried and true for the GOP... even if it won't work any more, as I hope the Obama presidency signals.

If small town America had the healthy and diverse economy it once had (before Wallmart killed small businesses and factories packed up and left), their votes would have swung for Obama as well.

The appeal of Republicans in small town American is not based on the way things were, it's based on the fear, alienation, poverty, and ignorance that have overtaken that world.

Shorter Ryan: "We totally would have won if'n that pesky Obama hadn't gotten more votes than we did!"

I don't really consider it my first priority to correct misconceptions by the likes of Paul Ryan on why they couldn't win. If he and his crew want to run just as delusional a campaign in the 2014 midterms and in the 2016 election too, fine by me.

Believe what you want, guys. Isn't that they beauty of America? *

* Though if you'd rather leave America, either by succession, or by just fucking off, well, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

It makes perfect sense if you subscribe to the GOP's worldview: People who vote democratic are not actually people, so they can not be Americans.

@1: If you think that Ryan's audience thinks of middle class white people when they hear "urban voter," you are out of your mind. You are making the mistake of using "facts" to try to understand this statement, and their worldview.

Ryan knows damn well that when he says "urban voter," his audience is picturing brown people on welfare.

@2 It's true. Despite the fact that they get a greater return on their tax dollars than us urbanites, their communities are slowly dying economically. I just doesn't make sense to live in the middle of nowhere anymore for most people.

So they complain about taxes and freedoms and all that jazz, because it's easier to just throw up your hands and blame the government than face the harsh and unforgiving economic reality of rural, small town living.

You know, I'm all for making fun of Ryan for being the giant fucking tool that he is, but I think the outrage and hen-clucking about this sound bite is misplaced. If he had phrased it as "the urban vote" or, worse, "urbans" (cf "illegals"), I'd see it as obvious coded language. In his usage here, though, talking about turnout amounts - not the composition of that turnout - I'd give him the benefit of the doubt that he's just talking shop about their turnout models and how they failed and how that altered their expectations for the night. Given how much was written about the echo chamber the Romney camp had in the last few days regarding "momentum", I think he's not making some kind of "if only blacks weren't voting!" argument, I think he's saying "damn, we did not project those groups to vote in the way they did, and it cost us". Dude has made enough obviously stupid and lamentable comments to have to force some racial viewing of this interview to make him a scumbag.

To those of us with the capacity to get our news from anywhere other than Fox, he most certainly lost on budget issues. (Hell, even Fox started getting a little irritated -- at least, as much as they're allowed to be when speaking to the GOP candidates -- at their unwillingness to give out facts after a while.) A plethora of others too, but most certainly on that issue.

Because it couldn't be that people didn't like his policies.

@ 5, I only said "white." Not "middle class white."

You should spend more time on rightie blogs to see what it is they think. They're well aware that most liberals are white. They just don't picture as as wholesome, suburban/small town middle class folk, even if many of us are (even in the heart of the city). They imagine us as weirdos, junkies, queers, nigger lovers, and so forth. It's pretty interesting to see how much it reads like a 60s KKK pamphlet at times. That, of course goes along WITH the actual minorities in cities. I didn't mean to imply that they aren't thinking of them as well.

Granted, a closer re-read of Ryan's statement can be interpreted that way. "some of the turnout..." The turnout that couldn't be suppressed Paul? That turnout was all minority.

Anyway, my point stands.

Once again, we see the American monoculture on display. Small town and rural America, where the American monoculture dominates, is the REAL America. The urban areas, with their multi-culturalism, are not.

Like members of all mono-cultures, mono-cultural Americans believe that their way of doing things is the one and only right way to do them. They cannot conceive of the possibility that anyone would think that their (false) faith, their (weird) food, their (unattractive) fashion, their (unbearable) music, their (rude) social norms, or their (misguided) value system is the equal - let alone superior - to the True Blue American Way. No wonder they believe so zealously in American Exceptionalism. No wonder they belive that America must lead the world in everything.

Anyone who does not agree with them is either deprived or depraved. Since their fellow Americans have not been deprived of their example, then these folks must be depraved.

If by "small town America" you mean "tax-subsidized inefficient welfare queen America" then I agree.

A recent proposal would have us make 200 airports we keep up 24/7/365 go dark when there is no air traffic to them. Most of that is in Welfare Queen America.

I agree that whether conscious or not, he's engaged in coded language, and there's a great big huge nostalgic contingent that thinks of small(er) cities as the real America, but clearly over the past half century or more the trend has been toward living in big cities and their sprawling suburbs.

I think the mistake is in thinking all those smaller city dwellers think exactly alike - for what it's worth Janesville Wisconsin is also Russ Feingold's home town

If Republicans refuse to adjust their policies to better suit the electorate's wishes, then this is the next best thing; more excuse-making, blame-shifting, math-ignoring bullshit. Keep it up, boys.

@2 - Truer words were never spoken. Small town America sucking on the WalMart test is very Stockholm Syndrome-atic.

Ryan says Obama won due to turnout in urban areas.

His reputation as the brains of the Republican Party is well-deserved.

/irony off.

I just want to say this about Janesville: It is a shitty, shitty town. I had to go there when my dad fell off a ladder trying to flip a house that he could only get junkies to rent from him, and there was nothing about that town that had any broad appeal that would make me want to return there. So congrats, Paul Ryan, for being from Wisconsin's taint.

The wikipedia list of "notable natives and residents" of Janesville is notable for being a very, very long list full of people I've never heard of. It's the longest list of nobodies I've ever seen on wiki.

I'm just glad not to have a VP who is 1) clueless 2) hypocritical and 3) looks like fucking Eddie Munster.

Urban = African American, not "ethnic". White people can be "ethnic" too.