Huffington Magazine Issue 11 | Page 54

NIKKI KAHN/THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES “WE’RE GOING TO WIN” If Romney were to win the election, leading Democrats scoffed at the idea that he would ever be able to push Ryan-type reforms through Congress, particularly regarding Medicare. “There’s no way that that will ever happen,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told me. HUFFINGTON 08.26.12 Registered Republican Ross Murty serves up supper in Davenport, Iowa. their own terms rather than fighting it out on Democratic ground of protecting against cuts,” Sevugan said. “Talk about Medicare in the context of broader fiscal soundness and deficits, and the courage to do something about entitlements.” THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION not likely to work politically. “Voters buy what they are already pre-disposed to believe,” Sevugan wrote in an e-mail. “Folks don’t think Democrats generally, and Obama—who has staked his presidency on expanding health care—specifically are the villains in the Medicare story. Unfortunately for Romney and Ryan that distinction belongs to them.” Sevugan noted that Romney’s offensive against Obama was an attempt to use Democratic strategy against a Democrat. “I think they’d be better off trying to define the issue on