Posted on 06/23/2012 8:56:00 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan has submitted paperwork to the Romney campaign, according to National Review's Robert Costa. You know what that means: The campaign is officially vetting the mild-mannered-but-consistently-controversial rock star from Wisconsin for the VP slot.
(Let's hope Costa's report is more reliable than the ABC report that came out earlier this week suggesting the Romney campaign isn't vetting Marco Rubio --- another favorite potential veep. I'm betting it is ... especially because it comes as no surprise that Ryan is on Romney's shortlist.)
Gotta say: I'm so glad I dipped back into the turbulent waters of blogging on this particular afternoon. I've been rooting for the alliterative Romney/Ryan ticket for months now.
The president's languid summer attempts to revive pride in him among the gay-marriage-friendly community and to woo those sympathetic to illegal immigrants stuck in the shadows haven’t changed the essential nature of the impending election. It will, for better or worse, decide the fiscal future of the country. It’s impossible to talk about jobs and the economy — especially in the shadow of the European crisis — without turning at least tangentially to entitlement programs. If we really want a healthy economy that supports work for all of us, then we have to reform the programs that are bankrupting the country. Paul Ryan has a plan to do that — which is more than I can say for President Obama. No better way to expose the president’s lack of leadership in that area than to put Ryan on the ticket.
Sure, a reliable Republican governor would make a decent running mate for Romney — and wouldn’t take any dearly-needed man or woman out of the House or Senate — but, on this particular presidential ticket, we need more than another reliable Republican governor. Romney can still sell the “extreme competence” angle with Ryan, but, by selecting the Budget Chairman, he’d also inject supreme meaning into his campaign — the meaning it’s been conspicuously lacking lately, at least according to Peggy Noonan.
By picking Ryan as his VP, Romney would send this message to all of us: “I’m prepared not just to execute as a businessman, but to lead as your president.”
Self-improvement gurus insist that individual weaknesses and strengths are often two sides of the same coin. I suggest the same is true for political movements. If it’s supposedly a political weakness that conservatives are willing to touch entitlement programs, it’s also a strength. Entitlement programs will end as we know them if we do nothing. Relentlessly, Romney/Ryan should ask the president: Will you let that happen, sir? No? Then, where’s your plan?
Excellent, he was a speaker at the 2012 TX GOP Convention.
But it is going to take an act of courage on Romney's part to run on a ticket with two white guys. Particularly a guy who would outshine him.
A pity Ryan isn’t the guy vetting VP possibilities. A lot of people on the GOP side who should have run didn’t.
Mitch Daniels is on the short list. But he’s not being considered for VP. ;^)
Bla-Bla-Bla
It is usually a sign of weakness of a campaign if they can not get a current or ex statewide office holder or a cabinet level type to take the VEEP slot. The only two House members I can remember in my lifetime were Goldwater in 1964 picking Congressman William E. Miller of upstate NY and Mondale in 1984 picking Congressman Geraldine Ferraro. As you know, those two slates with Congressmen VEEPs lost in two of the biggest blow outs in history.
So I would worry, if Romney picked Ryan. I think picking another governor would be a better way to go. I could also live with a Senator.
Wisconsin ping
Daniels was just hired to become the President of Perdue University after his term expires...I would doubt he’s still in the running.
The milk has been "spilt" - time to look forward to doing what can be done with what's left to work with.
Wisconsin ping: This is the 2nd time, but Ryan is being vetted for VP by Romney
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Mitch Daniels would be a freaking disaster.
I have to disagree on this one. Ryan is probably the single most influential Republican in America right now when it comes to the budget, entitlement reform and the economy. All through the Spring, the obama campaign was referring to the “Romney/Ryan budget plan.”
Ryan isn’t some anonymous congressman, he has been the counterpoint to obama for the past two years.
If anything, Ryan should be the presidential nominee.
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