Posted on 08/09/2012 8:09:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
If you are a Republican political consultant, you are almost professionally obliged to be shocked and appalled at the prospect of Rep. Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate.
With reliable reports that Ryan’s on Romney’s short-short list, the weeping and rending of garments among the Republican political class has already begun. You mean, they lament, he’s going to pick the Republican who embodies messing around with entitlements? The chairman of the House Budget Committee, for God’s sake?
Ryan is the guy political consultants see right before they wake up from a nightmare of a really bad focus group.
That the hyper-cautious Romney is seriously considering him counts as one of the biggest surprises of a campaign almost entirely lacking in them. Picking Ryan would represent a Romney revolt against conventional wisdom. And appropriately so — since the conventional wisdom is wrong.
In political terms, picking Ryan is supposedly like hanging out with the No. 2 of an Al Qaeda affiliate somewhere in the badlands of the Middle East. He’s a target. If the missiles haven’t yet taken him out, it’s only because the drone is hovering silently overhead before hurling down its bolts of death.
Ryan tops the Democratic target list for the offense of proposing serious reform of Medicare, as part of a budget that puts federal obligations on a sustainable path. It’s been a cardinal rule of Republican politics that it’s OK to talk about balancing the budget, so long as no one talks about touching the entitlements that drive the long-term debt. Ryan broke the rule.
He’s already featured in one attack ad, pushing an old lady in a wheelchair off a cliff. If he’s on the ticket, this will seem quaint.
There’s no doubt that the heart of the Ryan budget, Medicare premium support, is a major political risk. But the GOP is wedded to it. House Republicans passed the Ryan budget — twice. Romney himself endorsed it. He is already a “little bit pregnant” on Medicare reform. You don’t get to re-cross the Rubicon once you’ve boldly marched your legions to the other side. Even if you wanted to, David Axelrod would block the way.
The Democrats’ assault over Medicare will be ferocious — not to mention lowdown and dishonest. Hell, they’ve already all but accused Romney of killing someone, and they haven’t even gotten around to Medicare. When the barrage starts, Romney won’t be able to duck and cover or look at his shoes. He’ll have to win the argument — or at least hold his own.
This is the broader point. Romney has to carry the argument to President Barack Obama. The state of the economy alone isn’t enough to convince people that Romney has better ideas to create jobs. Neither is his résumé. Romney needs to make the case for his program, and perhaps no one is better suited to contribute to this effort than Ryan.
Ryan is an ideologue in the best sense of the term. He is motivated by ideas and knows what he believes and why. But he’s not blinkered. He is an explainer and a persuader.
Before there was a House-passed Ryan budget, there was Ryan meeting with Republican freshmen, walking them through the numbers and convincing them that true fiscal restraint was impossible without addressing entitlements. When the House took up and passed his budget, there was Ryan plugging for it — as comfortable with Charlie Rose as Rush Limbaugh.
On top of Medicare, worried Republicans fear Romney becoming too identified with House Republicans. But anyone looking at Ryan for two minutes will realize he runs completely counter to the stereotype of the wild-eyed, bomb-throwing House Republican. He is invariably civil, sure-footed and good-natured. He never loses his cool, even under extreme provocation. If anything, he is over-earnest.
The debate would not become all about the budget, as some anxious Republicans fear. At least not for the duration of the campaign. The economy remains the biggest issue, and Ryan has always been clear that his budget is best understood as a tool of economic growth rather than an expression of austerity. He is, at heart, still the protégé of Jack Kemp, his sunny, growth-obsessed political mentor.
The idea that Ryan is too important to steal away from the House Budget Committee is also a misapprehension. He’s done his work there. Now, anyone else can take up the template.
At the end of the day, Ryan is not such an odd match for Romney. It would be characteristic for Romney to consider his VP choice as an employment decision. And characteristic for him to hire a wonky young talent. If Ryan had been into finance instead of politics back in the 1990s, you could easily see Romney picking him up for Bain Capital.
Romney is, at bottom, a data-driven technocrat. The question has always been whether he wants to bring that skill to managing the federal government — or transforming it. If he chooses Ryan, the answer is inarguably transforming it.
Ryan would be Romney’s adjutant in the most consequential turnaround operation of the former Massachusetts governor’s career.
Romney has other worthy VP options that don’t provoke such agita. Overly safe is its own risk, though. Tim Pawlenty would offend no one, but might create a VP letdown in the party. Rob Portman is highly capable but is a former Bush official at a time when the Obama campaign is eager to define Romney as Bush redux.
Ryan would inject a jolt of energy into the campaign and reorient the debate around policy. The Romney campaign doesn’t have to be reckless. It does have to have a pulse. It doesn’t have to commit ideological hari-kari. It does have to have an unmistakable substantive content.
At times over the past few months, it has seemed that the Romney campaign has embarked on audacious experiment to see if it’s possible to run a presidential campaign devoid of real interest.
With the choice of Ryan, that would change in an instant.
-- Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review.
I agree with Ryan completely on entitlement reform, but he would be a bad choice politically in a national race. Lowry is just mistaken here. And I like Lowry, too.
I believe it is Ryan, maybe announced today or tomorrow.
I would respect a Ryan pick.
It makes no damn difference to the Marxist party and their enemedia cheerleaders.
Paul Ryan has a compelling life story. He grew up poor. Nobody handed him anything. He is not only good with details, he is excellent. The only rap on him is that he's a white guy.
The GOP could do one hell of a lot worse.
Gov Bob McDonnell of Virginia would be a 1000 X better selection for 1000 reasons.
I love Paul Ryan, although I hate to lose him in the House.
Romney/Ryan has a nice ring to it, although I’d like Ryan/Romney even better!
But Ryan wouldn't help him either. I think we can balance the budget without touching entitlements. We need more and better audits and controls to weed out fraud, but no arbitrary cuts in entitlements.
The main thing we need to do to balance the budgets is create jobs. And that can be done with import tariffs, closing the border to new workers, expelling the ones that are here illegally, and completely removing regulations on small employers.
Trying to balance the budget without addressing the economy is ridiculous.
But Ryan wouldn't help him either. I think we can balance the budget without touching entitlements. We need more and better audits and controls to weed out fraud, but no arbitrary cuts in entitlements.
The main thing we need to do to balance the budgets is create jobs. And that can be done with import tariffs, closing the border to new workers, expelling the ones that are here illegally, and completely removing regulations on small employers.
Trying to balance the budget without addressing the economy is ridiculous.
I really hope he is picked. He would help destroy the myth that the GOP has no budget plans. Dingy Harry keeps deep sixing everyone sent to him! People are unaware of this.
I would like to Ryan as Speaker of the House and Bob McDonnel as VP.
I would love to see Ryan, an articulate spokesman for conservatism, contrasted with dullards like Portman or Pawlenty.
I also think it’s high time that we start looking to the House of Representatives for leadership instead of senators, who think of themselves as ruling aristocrats. A former chairman of a House committee as head of the Senate. It will drive them nuts! And a true conservative no less. Move over McConnell, Ryan is the PRESIDENT of the senate. You’re just the majority leader.
Yes, I’m all for Ryan!
I hope Romney pick Ryan, but I doubt he has the courage to pick someone like that. I think he will pick a dull mushy wuss like himself. I think Romney is going to be a disappointment to conservatives in almost everything he does. I hope I am wrong.
????
Ryan has shown himself to be nothing special and he didn't go far in selling his ‘plan’ (it wasn't a real bill as he pointed out many times on the defensive) when he got House Republicans to vote for it. He started saying ‘its only a idea to start the conversation, not a real bill’ to defend himself
Ryan did join Pelosi, Boehner, McConnell, Obama in voting for the debt limit deficit reduction bill, the one that the same Republicans are now calling the doomsday budget cuts and and trying to repeal. This was a real accomplishment passed into law that they braggged about and now they disown it claiming it's all Obama's.
I personally think the whole thing was a non-serious scam to hold off primary challenges.
Ryan is not especially charismatic either.
The WSJ has an excellent and insightful lead editorial on why Ryan, btw.
This looks pretty good, doesn't it?...
ROMNEY/RYAN!
.
Needless to say, if Romney is as politically-astute and intelligent as I, he will choose Ryan, LOL......and I think he will!
Leni
-Supported TARP
-Auto Bailouts
-Medicare Plan D
-Every Bush budget, no cuts
-No Child Left Behind
-And, his 'plan' increases the budget and his 'cuts' aren't deep enough
I said I could respect a Ryan pick...not the same as choosing Ryan myself.
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