Why I like the Ryan pick
I was out of the house all morning and didn’t have a chance until now to blog about Mitt Romney’s pick of Paul Ryan as a running mate. But now I have time, and I must say: Ryan is an excellent pick.
I have made a few mentions during the past couple of months about my enthusiasm for putting Bobby Jindal on the ticket, and I still think he would have made a good choice. But he and Ryan, who for a long time didn’t appear to be on Romney’s short list, are like a No. 1 and No. 1a for me.
Some people will say Ryan is a risky pick because he has laid out the most detailed plan of just about any elected official — from either of the two major parties — about how to put Washington’s fiscal house in order. That means he brings a lot of targets with him onto the ticket, about Medicare in particular. To those people I say: You are crazy if you think the Obama campaign wasn’t going to make Romney answer for Ryan’s plan anyway.
For one thing, Romney already had endorsed the biggest aspects of the Ryan road map. For another, it’s already abundantly clear that the Obama campaign, which has already suggested Romney is a felon and tried to pin a woman’s death on him, considers nothing off-limits in this race. Romney could have disavowed Ryan’s plan altogether, and there still would have been a TV ad at some point showing Romney helping Ryan push Granny off a cliff.
So, I don’t think the risk is as great as you might be led to believe. But the potential reward is all there.
Paul Ryan has been the face of the GOP on these issues for more than two years now, and he has proven unafraid of taking arguments about taxes, spending, deficits, debt and entitlements straight to President Obama. He will boost tea-party enthusiasm about the GOP ticket, and he might be just the edge Romney needs to win in key Midwestern swing states: not just his home state of Wisconsin, but also Ohio, Michigan and perhaps Minnesota and even Pennsylvania. Giving him a national platform to talk about these issues and his plans to address them, and putting the Romney stamp of approval on those plans, means Obama won’t have to answer only about his mediocre record in office. He’ll also, finally, have to tell us exactly how he would tackle these problems.
Sorry, Mr. President, but the Buffett Rule won’t be enough.
It’s incredible, really, that the man who has presided over three straight trillion-dollar budget deficits, and whose proposed budgets make no attempt to rein them in, has been allowed to skate by as easily as he has on this topic. Even Obama’s own party, which still controls the Senate, makes no attempt to work with his budget proposals, much less approve them. He is very vulnerable on this issue.
Mitt Romney is not going to win a popularity contest, and he’s not going to win a small-issues election. Michael Dukakis tried to win on “competence” and couldn’t even beat George “The Vision Thing” Bush. Even the stagnant economy is not enough to put Romney in the White House — although he must still keep hammering at that issue. Incumbent presidents lose when the public thinks the challenger has a better idea of where to take us, and how to get there. Putting Ryan on the ticket means Romney intends to fight a big-issues election, and that he has the running mate to help him lay out that vision.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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468 comments Add your comment
ByteMe
August 11th, 2012
4:32 pm
Bruno said: The budget for the majority of the Bush years averaged in the $2.5 T range.
Bruno forgot that there was a lot of “off-budget” spending… like two wars. Obama rightly put them back in the budget. Or do you disagree with him doing that?
Dusty
August 11th, 2012
4:33 pm
I Report,
Are you just kidding or something? Paul Ryan has a wife, two sons and a daughter.
What’s going on here?
Just Saying..
August 11th, 2012
4:33 pm
Tiberius – pulling the tail of the left AND right
August 11th, 2012
4:25 pm:Uh, I/YW? zRyan as a wife. And kids
Oh come Tib, let him invent his own facts. He’s more comfortable there…
Army Veteran
August 11th, 2012
4:36 pm
Great pick! Just the beginning to win the country bak from the radical America hating Democrats!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 11th, 2012
4:37 pm
Dusty, et al – I know, believe me. And I pray for them. I was just trying to discourage any sicko lib stalkers that may be monitoring this blog, like bookman for instance.
Do you guys have to point it out to them?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 11th, 2012
4:38 pm
Hey bookman, I know you’re here, how many nasty articles about Ryan’s family did they assign you with?
freak
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 11th, 2012
4:43 pm
Anybody wanna place a bet? Within the week, bookman has some filth about Ryan’s wife cheating on him with their young sons or something de-spi-c-able like that?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 11th, 2012
4:45 pm
Who knows who the father of the Ryan kids are, right, bookman?
DannyX
August 11th, 2012
4:45 pm
Erick Erickson on Mitt Romney already trying to distance himself from Paul Ryan proposals, From RedState.com:
“Today, the Romney camp sent out a talking points sheet claiming that while picking Paul Ryan, Romney had his own budget plans. This is delusional and not credible spin. You pick Paul Ryan, you defend his budget. It is that simple. That one bullet point sums up a summer of dysfunction. The Romney team seems to be believing its own spin, which can often lead to disaster.”
Even Mitt understands that most Americans think Paul Ryan is out of touch with reality. Why in the world did Mitt pick Ryan? He’s already backing away from him.
Erickson thinks Romney is delusional. Wow.
Fred ™
August 11th, 2012
4:45 pm
It’s incredible, really, that the man who has presided over three straight trillion-dollar budget deficits, and whose proposed budgets make no attempt to rein them in, has been allowed to skate by as easily as he has on this topic.
Would Jesus be proud of you uttering that lie?
Dusty
August 11th, 2012
4:48 pm
Byte Me
Obama had a budget? What is that thing floating around Congress with his name on it? Is there still an old budget that added trillions to the deficit?
I can’t keep all these budgets straight. Washington does not make them like I do. I budget what I can pay for. Not what I wish for. Washington has a shoot-for-the-stars “plan” at this time. But that is going to change. Very soon!!
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 11th, 2012
4:50 pm
Ryan’s budget will require cuts to spending and the Libs on here say the American people will not stand for it. I am an optimist that believes that if he explained the dangers of continuing with the Obama’s spend and spend more plan, the people can be persuaded. I know many of the voters just want to get more and more, but a rational person, at some point, has to realize that government can only confiscate so much of the money floating around, before the economy collapses.
The question is other than raising 80B from not extending tax cuts for those making over $250K, what is the Obama plan for debt and deficit? Does he just want to continue to spend until we reach the point of no return, and hope that point occurs after Jan 2017?
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 11th, 2012
4:55 pm
I Report
He can always use the Hairy the Reed line, of someone told me that Paul Ryan……..blah, blah, blah.
DannyX
August 11th, 2012
4:58 pm
“Would Jesus be proud of you uttering that lie?”
Catholic Bishops think that the budget proposal of Catholic Paul Ryan is immoral.
Jeffrey
August 11th, 2012
5:03 pm
How come $80b is a lot if it is spent to explore alternative energy or save the economy, but a mere pittance if it came in through higher taxes.
Fred ™
August 11th, 2012
5:06 pm
Jeffrey
August 11th, 2012
5:03 pm
How come $80b is a lot if it is spent to explore alternative energy or save the economy, but a mere pittance if it came in through higher taxes.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Really? You are asking for logic, thought, and parity from Republicans? Have you gone bonkers? They don’t have a Rush Limbaugh bumper sticker phrase to answer your question silly.
Just like somehow 2 wars and an unfunded drug mandate by President Bush are President Obama’s “trillion-dollar budget deficits” as Kyles lies it……..
Del
August 11th, 2012
5:22 pm
I never saw Romney so energized. Maybe it was Paul Ryan’s energy rubbing off on him. Great V.P. selection and the country will have a distinct choice this November. Vote Romney/Ryan to get the country back on its traditional track that made us great.
@@
August 11th, 2012
5:29 pm
Yep, Hillbilly and Dusty, that was an imposter. Gone for good.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz even though I never saw it.
Ryan holds up pretty well under Politifact’s microscope.
Don Abernethy
August 11th, 2012
5:29 pm
Democrats will paint Romney and Ryan as rich enemies of the poor. I have voted Republican for 50 years and will do so again but we have picked the wrong candidates (AGAIN!!). There are more poor voters than rich voters. Poor voters don’t seem to be worried about the economy just their government checks and they do not want Romney and Ryan to stop the checks.
Del
August 11th, 2012
5:49 pm
Don, it’s all about turn out. The campaign that energizes its base to turn out and vote wins. Evidently, Obama has lost the enthusiasm within his base, while the Republicans have significantly increased theirs. It will be a close election and at this point very much a toss up.
Whirled Peas
August 11th, 2012
5:50 pm
The liberal press (including the AJC) does not like to talk about it, but the budget deficit and the national debt stand head and shoulders above anything other problem we have. The press likes to talk about gay marriage, contraception, abortion, just about anything other than our country’s unstoppable spending. Ryan is a good choice because he will help focus the attention of Obama’s spending.
An Observer
August 11th, 2012
5:54 pm
Ryan is a great pick! I am looking forward to voting for him and Romney. let’s get rid of Obama and his terrible government.
@@
August 11th, 2012
5:55 pm
For those of you claiming Ryan fully supported the auto bailout, listen to this.
It’s the Conservative/Libertarian wing of the GOP that doesn’t fully support Ryan’s budget proposals because it doesn’t eliminate government bureaucracies. I think it’s 3…maybe 4 government agencies that Rand Paul’s budget proposal wants to cut.
There’s time within an 8 yr Romney/Ryan administration to do just THAT.
Somebody needs to tell President Obama that
consolidating and eliminating are two different things.
Just saying..
August 11th, 2012
5:58 pm
From the Tampa Bay Times: “Already collected Social Security. After Ryan’s father passed away, he saved Social Security survivor’s benefits to pay for attending Miami University, where Ryan double majored in economics and political science in 1992.”
Well, that’s awkward…
Old timer
August 11th, 2012
6:02 pm
I like. His fire…passion and new ideas
@@
August 11th, 2012
6:14 pm
Well, that’s awkward.
No it’s not. His father died when he was 16. He received survivor benefits until he was 18. He supplemented those benefits by also working while he was in college.
Moderate Voter
August 11th, 2012
6:26 pm
Bad decision. Romney’s alienated moderates by pandering to tin-foil-hat-wearing Tea Partiers who were already going to vote for him, since he’s not Obama.
@@
August 11th, 2012
6:27 pm
Funny comment over at Politico.
rockribbed said:
Barack,
You are not responsible for the success of my business
and I am not responsible for the failure of your presidency.
I YIKE IT!!!!
Not everyone can say that.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 11th, 2012
6:29 pm
Obama has added $5 trillion to the national debt, and has nothing to show for it. Do you know how difficult that is to do? – Steyn
That why he blubbers about Ryan.
JamVet
August 11th, 2012
6:31 pm
Well, about the best you can say about Ryan is that he is no Palin.
Even though he is gonna end up in the same boat.
Another footnote in the Uppity Kenyan Muslim Socialist’s American hating biography.
LOL.
Do as I say, not as I do.
August 11th, 2012
6:32 pm
“His father died when he was 16. He received survivor benefits until he was 18.”
Sounds like to socialism to me. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
Not very Randian.
Cutty
August 11th, 2012
6:37 pm
How did the fiscal conservative Ryan vote on George Bush’s big spending budgets that added to the deficit?
RC--apoi
August 11th, 2012
6:40 pm
Well, this ought to sew up FL for Romney. I mean, when you tell those folks approaching retirement they’ll get the same Medicare benefits as ever if they just give a ins. co. their voucher plus a personal check for about $10,000, they’ll be breaking down the doors to vote for Romney and Ryan.
Things is looking up.
Jay
August 11th, 2012
6:41 pm
There is nothing conservative about “Conservatives”. Ask them how much we spend on “defense” and they don’t know because they don’t care. Ask them about the biggest government agency in the world that they created (Homeland Security) and they don’t care. Ask them how much money we give to Israel every year and they don’t know because they don’t care. The only thing they care about is deflecting blame from the past eight years of disaster cause by their vote for bush. If someone tears your house down for 8 years, do you really expect someone else to come fix in less than four years while fighting off vandalism from the previous occupiers? BTW, CNN turned into Fox after Hillary lost to PRESIDENT Barack Obama. Ask Republican scum who owns the “Federal Reserve”, they don’t know, ask republicans who created the “Federal Reserve”, they don’t know and why, they don’t know. Ask rescums, how does the “Federal Reserves” make their money and how much do they make, the rescums can’t tell you because they don’t care. The rescums are only dedicated to them making money not to the country of The Great United States Of America. Rescums have even stop pretending to care about anyone else except other rescums. America needs cleansing from this scum of the earth.
@@
August 11th, 2012
6:41 pm
AmVet:
When RW posted his McKayla link, I laughed thinking about you.
http://mckaylaisnotimpressed.tumblr.com/
Cutty
August 11th, 2012
6:41 pm
Ryan’s wife is a liberal who was indoctrinated at Wellesley College. I’m sure you cons hate that.
Hillbilly D
August 11th, 2012
6:44 pm
I’ve always thought Ayn Rand and Karl Marx were both in the same boat, neither one of them understood human nature.
Thomas Heyward Jr.
August 11th, 2012
6:45 pm
Jay—
.
You sir……are mistaking conservatives for republicans.
Republicans or Democrats are all proegressives in which all of them are statists.
.
Dangerous folks. Thank God their numbers are diminishing(old age fossils).
Ron Paul and the Liberty movement is growing, regardless of what the State-Sponsored Vichy press mouth pieces spout.
.
Don’t be frightened.
GRANNY5
August 11th, 2012
6:48 pm
Kye will you answer something for me.Does any of your grandparents have Social Security and Medicare and if they do are you throwing them to the dogs/
Fred ™
August 11th, 2012
6:50 pm
HBD: Was Karl Marx a drug addict like that amped up Meth ho Ayn Rand?
How come the God and Goddess of the right, Rush Limbaugh and Ayn Rand, are whacked out drug addicts, yet the right is so godly and such? I never figured that out. And here, sweet little Dusty calls me a drunk for having a beer like that’s some sort of sin or something.
Go figure……..
JamVet
August 11th, 2012
6:50 pm
Hey, did i just feel something on the back of my leg?
Fred ™
August 11th, 2012
6:52 pm
Dear Jay: Do you have to lower yourself to Republican standards by using terms like “rescums?”
Thomas Heyward Jr.
August 11th, 2012
6:53 pm
Paul Ryan went to college on SS benefits.
.
Obama to Ryan——–”you didn’t build that carreer”.
.
And for ONCE…….the murderer in Chief ..will not be lying.
.
The Repubs are toast.
Fred ™
August 11th, 2012
6:53 pm
LOL two boobs at 6:41. I saved that link.
Hillbilly D
August 11th, 2012
6:55 pm
Fred
I don’t really know anything about Marx as a person. Haven’t a clue if he was a drug addict or not.
Jay
August 11th, 2012
6:55 pm
“Conservatives” are a myth, so called “Conservatives” are really ‘Regressive”, they want to regress back to a time when they could rape, kill, steal and rob with immunity. That’s all they really want and we need to keep them out of power FOREVER.
GRANNY5
August 11th, 2012
6:56 pm
I do not believe that you will answer that question.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 11th, 2012
7:04 pm
Granny5
Ryan is proposing no changes for people over 55, so quit shaking in your boots.
Jefferson
80B is a lot when multiplied times a large number of government boondoogles costing 80B. It is a lot of money to raise, but it doesn’t quite eliminate a 2.5T dollar deficit. Where does the other 1.7T dollars come from? Answer that question, and people might support what now appears a foolish way to try and solve our deficit problem. Obama doesn’t have a plan other than take the 80B from the job creators.
I think down south, we would call that a “half asted plan”, even tho it is not even half asted.
Orange12
August 11th, 2012
7:13 pm
“America needs cleansing from this scum of the earth.”
Jay. How do you propose to rid the world of these vile people. Are you going to smoke them out of their holes or give them a stern look and say “this earth isn’t big enough your kind and myself.”
@@
August 11th, 2012
7:15 pm
Fred:
As far as numbers go, I’m not sure which one of Kyle’s rules you just broke, but know this…
I don’t like you!!!
Having said ^^^ that, I wouldn’t want you punished for calling me “two boobs” instead of @@.