Trending: Robert Gibbs v. Paul Ryan, and Defending Joe

?If [Paul Ryan] wants to protect Medicare for his mother, he should thank President Obama for what he has done to extend the life of the Medicare trust fund. What President Obama did was strengthen the Medicare benefits to help Medicare beneficiaries and extend it more than 8 years.? – Robert Gibbs on Fox News Sunday

IT’S THE JACK RYAN plan of attack, which I’ve written about before.

If you know it’s coming, “Give them no place to go, nothing to report, no story.? Turn into your opponent’s point of attack and take the offense.

That’s what the Romney campaign is doing on Medicare since Paul Ryan came on board. The above web video “Our Generation’s Time” was sent out today by Team Romney.

Whether it works or not is another story, but it’s the smart play, maybe even their only play considering Ryan’s budget on Medicare is to remake it entirely for those under 55, not to mention the Republican plan for Medicaid.

The next pivot for Team Obama is to move the ball, push the point and ask what else does Romney-Ryan have planned for entitlements?

Another trending item today is the continued push to lower Vice President Joe Biden down to size, taking advantage of a Boston Globe editorial stating that Biden should apologize for his ?put y’all back in chains? remark. Robert Gibbs had an answer for that, too.

Senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs on Sunday defended Joe Biden, saying a recent comment that GOP economic policies would put people ?back in chains? was not racially motivated and claiming it was no different than how Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), speak of Wall Street reform.

[...] ?I?m not going to get lectured by Mitt Romney or anybody on the Romney campaign about the tone of this campaign. This is a guy who?s flown all over this country saying he?s not sure if the president believes in America,? said Gibbs. ?He?s auctioning off dinners with the birther-in chief, right-wing nut job Donald Trump, who still questions whether the president was born in the United States of America.? [The Hill]

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