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Could running mate Ryan run the country?
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ^ | August 18, 2012 | Jason Stein

Posted on 08/19/2012 1:11:52 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Is GOP running mate Paul Ryan the stuff that presidents and commanders-in-chief are made of?

Polling shows that many Americans are still making up their minds about the Janesville Republican as a vice presidential pick, though he's not surprisingly getting higher marks from voters in his home state.

Ryan has deep knowledge of Congress and the federal budget, brains and vigor, and a telegenic ease with the media. But if called, could he manage the vast federal bureaucracy, protect the nation from peril overseas and inspire citizens across the country?

The question isn't an idle one. Polls show it's the one that voters care most about in a vice presidential pick. And if presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Ryan win in November - or even come close - there's a significant chance that one day Ryan could find himself running for or even serving as president.

Jeremi Suri, a scholar of American foreign policy and the presidency at the University of Texas-Austin and a former Wisconsin resident, called Ryan's budget expertise impressive but noted that there were gaps in other parts of his White House résumé.

"He's someone who's shown a detailed engagement with one of the big challenges of the day. That's a big deal," said Suri, who's spoken with Ryan in the past. But "he hasn't shown yet that he's a national-level leader."

Vice presidents are famous for playing only a small role in government beyond standing ready for the worst. But even in the absence of disaster striking the president, the job can be a staircase to the world's most powerful post. Based on history, statistician Nate Silver of The New York Times gives Ryan a one-in-three chance of winning an election to become president someday - if he and Romney can win in November...

(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012; elections; obama; paulryan; romney; ryan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Is GOP running mate Paul Ryan the stuff that presidents and commanders-in-chief are made of?

YES. Look at the idiot in the WH and his "room temp IQ" VP for comparison. Anybody, even a blind, hunchback midget with a club foot could do a better job than they are doing.

21 posted on 08/19/2012 5:26:40 AM PDT by GoldenPup (Comrade "O" has got to GO!!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ryan has a better concept of government than The One whose claim to executive experience was his running his own presidential campaign, after just 2 years in the US Senate.

The One lowered the bar so low that it is difficult for Dems to accuse anyone of not having the experience and knowledge to be president.


22 posted on 08/19/2012 5:30:01 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hmmmm...wonder if this brain surgeon asked the same about the current President 4 years ago.....hmmmm....if I was a betting man...i know how I would bet on this one.....


23 posted on 08/19/2012 5:39:56 AM PDT by PigRigger (Donate to http://www.AdoptAPlatoon.org - The Troops have our front covered, let's guard their backs!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
When I first read the headline, I thought they were going to make the case that Rep. Ryan would be "another Dick "Darth Cheney" Cheney" or the power behind the throne, as the left always claimed when Dubya was in office. Digging deeper, I see that they're trying to sow doubt in his fitness for the office of vice president, even when the alternative is Clueless Joe.

It is laughable. They are trying so hard to lift up Biden to the level of Paul Ryan that they even have someone at "Thy Black Man" writing an editorial that excuses Joe's "chains" comment by saying it was a "well-scripted, thought through political set piece".

Link to FR thread: Dump Joe Biden Chains Talk, Just That. Talk.

24 posted on 08/19/2012 5:43:56 AM PDT by arasina (So there.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Vice presidents are famous for playing only a small role in government beyond standing ready for the worst. But even in the absence of disaster striking the president, the job can be a staircase to the world's most powerful post. Based on history, statistician Nate Silver of The New York Times gives Ryan a one-in-three chance of winning an election to become president someday - if he and Romney can win in November...
Having looked at the link, IMHO Nate Silver put his thumb on the scale by selecting a particular starting point for his data set which is probably congenial to the thesis that VPs become presidents. He also double-counts two-term VPs by counting the number of times they got elected VP, not just the fact that they were elected VP.

News flash! Sitting VPs don’t get elected POTUS unless their patron with whom they first got elected to national office is a big deal. Truman’s election was really another(!) FDR win, GHWB’s election was really a third Ronald Reagan win, and LBJ’s win was really a second JFK win.

Had Eisenhower fully a appreciated that fact, he might have risked a bit of his prestige trying to get Nixon elected in 1960 - which Eisenhower never did. That could easily have changed history distinctly.


25 posted on 08/19/2012 5:48:32 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which “liberalism" coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hmmm, kinda makes me wonder if the Obama machine could pull off a Romney tax revelation forcing him to withdraw, and then Ryan decides to draft Sarah Palin.

Now I have faith in a proper leadership for the country.

Can anyone imagine the fireworks erupting at the Communist Party USA headquarters if even a fraction of this was possible?

Ryan/Palin 2012


26 posted on 08/19/2012 5:53:39 AM PDT by Eye of Unk (Vote for Sarah Palin, she is the cure to the disease and infection of socialism.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Since when do we elect a president to “run the country? Did the author ever read the constitution?


27 posted on 08/19/2012 6:05:18 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: South40

Paul Ryan could run this country far better than that interminable jackass Plugs Biden.

Or his Kenyan running mate.


28 posted on 08/19/2012 6:08:35 AM PDT by chainsaw ("Two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.")
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To: Eye of Unk

Ryan/Palin 2012

I Like!


29 posted on 08/19/2012 6:10:47 AM PDT by chainsaw ("Two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Jeremi Suri, douchebag

30 posted on 08/19/2012 6:13:08 AM PDT by StAnDeliver ("So, a Mormon and a Catholic walk onto an aircraft carrier...")
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To: jimfree
"No, the far better question is “can Obama run the country?”"

"can Obama ruin the country?"

FIFY

Almost anybody would be better than Zero.

31 posted on 08/19/2012 6:15:50 AM PDT by HangThemHigh (Entropy's not what it used to be.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Pay no attention to the commie Milwaukee rag - they really wanted to put an ‘i’ in and make it “ruin”.


32 posted on 08/19/2012 6:46:14 AM PDT by Mygirlsmom ("Obama has created a government that's not too big to fail, but too big to succeed." Sarah Palin)
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To: Vendome

Does Ryan realize that he will likely never get to go deer hunting while in office. If he goes on to win election as president probably no deer hunting for at least ten years after leaving office.


33 posted on 08/19/2012 7:52:02 AM PDT by W. W. SMITH ((Yuri Bezmenov (KGB Defector) - "Kick The Communists Out of Your Govt. & Don't Accept Their Goodies.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

OMG he is in bed with a lobbyist. Can you hear the idiots screaming?


34 posted on 08/19/2012 7:55:47 AM PDT by W. W. SMITH ((Yuri Bezmenov (KGB Defector) - "Kick The Communists Out of Your Govt. & Don't Accept Their Goodies.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama shored up his thin experience by picking Vice President Joe Biden

Obama shored up his low IQ by picking a Vice President with an even lower IQ, Joe Biden.


35 posted on 08/19/2012 8:11:46 AM PDT by W. W. SMITH ((Yuri Bezmenov (KGB Defector) - "Kick The Communists Out of Your Govt. & Don't Accept Their Goodies.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Could we get rid of all liberal news?


36 posted on 08/19/2012 8:15:52 AM PDT by bmwcyle (Corollary - Electing the same person over and over and expecting a different outcome is insanity)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think that Ryan would be a much better president than Romney , and most definitely better than the current assclown and his court jester.


37 posted on 08/19/2012 8:25:56 AM PDT by eak3
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To: StAnDeliver

Are you sure that isn’t one of those fun-house mirror, elongated trick photos? If it’s not...


38 posted on 08/19/2012 9:08:14 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

That was a huge mistake on Ike’s part. Khrushchev would’ve almost certainly never tried that missile in Cuba crap on Dick Nixon, and I don’t see Nixon abandoning the Bay of Pigs invasion.


39 posted on 08/19/2012 9:16:29 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: W. W. SMITH

Cheney shot his friend....


40 posted on 08/19/2012 9:42:52 AM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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