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Former GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., now supports the rights of gay Americans to adopt children, though he still believes marriage “is between a man and a woman.” In a town hall meeting with constituents in Wisconsin on Monday, the House Budget Committee chairman said he has changed his mind on the adoption issue, even though his opinions on other aspects of gay rights have remained unchanged. To date, two Republican senators — Rob Portman of Ohio, who had been in the mix for Mitt Romney’s No. 2 spot, and Mark S. Kirk of Illinois — have...

Never mind! Paul Ryan has changed his view on adoption by same-sex partners, he told a town-hall audience in Wisconsin on Monday. In 1999, Ryan voted against gay couples, but now says he has reversed course on the issue. “I’d vote differently these days,” he said. “I do believe that if there are children who are orphans who do not have a loving person or couple, I think if a person wants to love and raise a child, they ought to be able to do that.” On same-sex marriage, he says he’s still opposed.

Like his mentor Jack Kemp, he’s pro-immigration.This week, there was a new development in the House: Paul Ryan may be the key to passing comprehensive immigration reform. But that should hardly come as a surprise. Long before he was a vice-presidential nominee, Ryan was an adviser to former New York congressman Jack Kemp at Empower America, a conservative think tank. It was there, in his early twenties, that Ryan began to share Kemp’s politics. Beyond fiscal issues, that meant supporting pro-immigration policies, such as an expanded guest-worker program. Kemp often spoke passionately about how immigration was necessary for economic growth...

The two lead negotiators in the Senate’s Gang of Eight said on Thursday that they believe their immigration reform bill will not just have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate — but majority support from both parties. “I think it is doable,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the bill cannot slip by with 60 votes because the House would feel less pressure to take it up. Others in the negotiating group have said they think the bill could win at least 70 Senate votes. But...

Paul Ryan says the Gang of Eight’s immigration-reform plan is “productive” and “getting us closer to a solution.” Ryan will give a speech on Monday in Chicago on immigration. Representative Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, a Democrat, will appear with him.

Heritage Foundation fellow Ryan Anderson debates marriage with S.E. Cupp on "Real News from The Blaze.

By all accounts, the Japanese Kamikaze pilots in WWII were earnest, dedicated young men. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan is an earnest, dedicated young man. The principal difference between Chairman Ryan and a Kamikaze pilot is that the Japanese aviators got only one shot, while Ryan has managed to fly three suicide missions in three years. Ryan’s first Kamikaze flight, his “Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Resolution”, had zero impact on Federal spending, but managed to sink Republican hopes of retaining NY-26, a congressional district that had been held by Republicans since Jack Kemp won it in 1970. Ryan’s second suicidal...

The House Thursday approved by a party-line vote a Republican spending plan for 2014 that would balance the U.S. budget in 10 years with substantial cuts in spending and a new Medicare plan for Americans younger than 55. It passed 221-207 and puts the GOP once again solidly on the side of reduced federal funding and more tax cuts. Democrats said it would devastate programs important to the middle class and poor, while providing huge tax benefits to the wealthy. The GOP budget would cut the top income tax rate from 39.6 percent, through the closing of loopholes and other...

Former vice presidential candidate and current House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., gave a little more oxygen to the idea that he’ll run for president in 2016. “I’m going to make my mind up later,” Ryan said on CNN today, as NBC’s Kasie Hunt noted. “I will give it serious consideration.” That remark goes beyond his comments earlier this month on Fox News. “We look back at it as a very positive experience,” Ryan told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “We actually enjoyed it. We got to meet hundreds of thousands of people who care so much about their country....

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Task Force on Immigration, said on Tuesday he’s seen a marked change in the way Republicans are approaching the immigration debate -- and that he has a key ally in Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Speaking to reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Gutierrez said he and Ryan would be talking about immigration reform in Chicago in April. He said that Ryan “was not new” to the immigration debate but that “like many in the Republican Party, his voice was shut out.” Gutierrez said that prior to...

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has some “downright sickening” plans today, according to the campaign arm of the House Democratic Caucus. “This is downright sickening,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee emails (signed “Democratic Headquarters”) said in an email today. “Today, House Republicans will vote for Paul Ryan’s Medicare-destroying budget. And guess what Ryan’s doing right after? Here’s what: Hosting a lavish fundraiser in the shadow of the Capitol, hobnobbing with those who will benefit the most from his budget — deep-pocketed millionaires and billionaires.” The message continues with a fundraising pitch. “The ultra-wealthy and their shady special interests...

Isn’t it just like that young whippersnapper, Paul Ryan, to go ahead and produce his own budget? He’s just grandstanding, you know. To draw attention to the fact that laws are only for little people: Case # 3476: Under the law, President Obama must submit a budget by the first Monday in February, but he has met the deadline only once.(snip) Hey! Know who else has run a huge deficit for years without having an operating budget? Detroit! That’s who. They’re bankrupt now, of course; after years of ignoring troubling little facts like an unreported $7.2 billion in retiree health...

Rep. Paul Ryan said that a Thursday lunch with President Obama at the White House was the first conversation between the two men that lasted more than a few minutes. “This is the first time I’ve ever had a conversation with the president lasting more than, say, two minutes or televised exchanges,” Mr. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House Budget Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “So I’ve never really had a conversation with him on these issues before. I’m excited that we had this conversation — we had a very frank exchange. We come from different perspectives;...

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Sunday said he will not back down from the battle to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act even though some Republicans think the party should move on. Ryan dismissed criticism that House Republicans have virtually no chance of dismantling the signature legislative accomplishment of Obama’s first term and their efforts might be better expended elsewhere. He said his budget assumes the repeal of the healthcare law, in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” When host Chris Wallace challenged him on that assumption, Ryan said he would not give up the fight. “That’s...

The key subplot to Rubio's immigration push, of course, is how much of a headache it'll be for him with conservatives in the 2016 primaries. The talk-radio charm offensive is mainly designed to get grassroots opinion-shapers like Rush to at least wait and see what the bill looks like before lobbying against it, but more broadly it's designed to move the Overton window on what positions are acceptable for a good conservative to hold. Rubio can afford to have immigration reform fail; he can't afford to be RINO-ized over it. Like I said yesterday, whether or not a bill ends...

(Reuters) - Ending a self-imposed silence about the November election, 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said on Wednesday that he and presidential running mate Mitt Romney lost not because of ideas, but due to ineffective communication.

Former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan says he supports "the principles" of an immigration reform proposal from Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a sign that the party may be coalescing around its own plan to overhaul the nation's laws."Senator Rubio is exactly right on the need to fix our broken immigration system," the congressman wrote on his Facebook page on Monday, with a link to a Wall Street Journal article that includes Rubio's key immigration goals. "I support the principles he’s outlined: modernization of our immigration laws; stronger security to curb illegal immigration; and respect for the rule of law...

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday asked the White House if it will once again miss the legal deadline for submitting an annual budget to Congress. Under the law, Obama must submit a budget by the first Monday in February, but he has met the deadline only once. The annual budget submission is supposed to start a congressional budgeting process, but that has also broken down. The Senate last passed a budget resolution in 2009. “Given the critical importance of addressing our nation´s fiscal problems, I am writing to ask whether the President will submit

Yep, ya heard it here first: TEA Party on the verge of taking-over Congress... Speaking on the O'Reilly Factor, Laura Ingraham said a 'well-placed conservative voice on the Hill' told her he's beginning to hear rumblings of a move to replace John Boehner as House Speaker.  And the name that keeps coming up? I LOVE IT... [video] Besides the fact that Speaker Boehner's recent 'Plan B' collapse displayed for all his weak leadership and general lack of support, seems that Boo-Hoo Boehner's private dealing with Obama -outside normal committe channels- was really that last straw... it's just not working...

Two of the Republican Party’s most promising presidential prospects on Tuesday outlined their vision of a renewed GOP that represents 100 percent of Americans, in an apparent effort to distance themselves from some of the blunders of the party’s most recent presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) both delivered speeches before an audience of influential conservative leaders at the Jack Kemp Foundation’s Leadership Award Dinner. Rubio received this year’s award, while Ryan was last year’s winner. Both lawmakers recalled the economic philosophy championed by Ryan’s mentor Kemp, the...

Two of the Republican Party's most prominent voices, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, laid out their visions for broadening the GOP's economic message in dual speeches Tuesday, as conservatives seek new moorings in the aftermath of Mitt Romney's presidential defeat last month. The speeches revealed Mr. Ryan and Mr. Rubio—respectively, the party's most recent vice-presidential nominee and a freshman senator seen as a rising star—moving briskly to rebrand both themselves and their party at a time of debate and introspection over how to steer the GOP in a new direction. The men, both seen as...

GOP ready to forget Romney and embrace Rep. Ryan on MedicareBy Sam Baker and Elise Viebeck - 12/02/12 02:45 PM ET Mitt Romney’s Medicare budget might be fading away just as quickly as Romney himself. During the campaign, candidate Romney repeatedly hammered President Obama for cutting $716 billion from Medicare as part of his signature healthcare law. Romney pledged to repeal those cuts in a break from his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Ryan, the House Budget Committee Chairman, had preserved Obama’s Medicare cuts in two consecutive budget proposals that repealed the rest of the Affordable Care Act. Ryan...

Obama’s top election strategist tells a Chicago audience he was surprised Mitt Romney’s team did not attack Obama more, stuck so narrowly with their base—and chose Paul Ryan for VP. President Obama’s top reelection strategist conceded surprise Monday that Republican super PACS didn’t attack Obama far earlier, Mitt Romney didn’t invest much more in ground operations, and that the Republican nominee played narrowly to the party base in picking Rep. Paul Ryan as a running mate. Offering a lengthy dissection of the campaign, David Axelrod told a Chicago audience that he was “a bit surprised that super PACS, which spent...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has tapped Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and two other senior Republicans for key roles as he prepares for negotiations on the fiscal cliff with the White House and Democratic leaders. The Speaker is adding Ryan and Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Dave Camp (R-Mich.) to his daily management meetings “in preparation for the fiscal cliff talks,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said. Those meetings already include the top four members of the House Republican leadership team. Ryan, the recently defeated GOP vice presidential nominee, is continuing as chairman of the House Budget Committee while Upton leads...

On Wednesday, Greta put up a poll asking her readers who they thought, at this moment, was the leader of the Republican Party. Readers responded by choosing Sarah Palin by an overwhelming margin over the rest of the field. Reading the comments it’s pretty plain that many feel Sarah could have fared far better against President Obama than Governor Mitt Romney did. Judging how well Sarah’s hand picked candidates for office did, vs how those in the standard GOP mold under-performed, it’s not much of a stretch to think Sarah herself would have done well and likely led the party...

With the 2012 election results in, there are no short- or even medium-term "silver linings" for Republicans. SNIP SNIP On to why our pilot Mitt Romney and his plan were so flawed. 1. Paul Ryan. Romney's choice of Ryan was almost inexplicable. A good conservative, Ryan was unqualified for the job of vice president, and therefore the job of president. A sitting member of Congress, he held no leadership position on the Hill. Romney's VP selection was the most important one of his campaign, and by it he telegraphed his lack of political wisdom to the nation. With his VP...

Newsmax Why Mitt Romney Lost Wednesday, November 7, 2012 02:24 PM By: Christopher Ruddy Newsmax Christopher Ruddy’s Perspective: It was the worst of times and the worst of times. With the 2012 election results in, there are no short- or even medium-term "silver linings" for Republicans. President Barack Obama has won a decisive victory and the GOP, expecting to gain Senate seats, actually had a net loss of three. The "morning after" will bring the expected explanations and after-game quarterbacking. Still, it is important that the GOP understand why we lost this one in hopes of future victory. Perhaps the...

Paul Ryan won't be helping Mitt Romney lead the country in a new direction from the White House. But the Wisconsin congressman famous for his small-government budget blueprints has emerged from his first national race with high visibility and a top spot on any list of 2016 presidential prospects.

Wisconsin is example A of how screwed up our country is. Two years ago, we elected Scott Walker and Tea Party Senator Ron Johnson. The Republicans took over both the state assembly and state senate. In short, two years ago, the Republicans took our state back. Tonight, our state voted to send the flaming liberal lesbian Tammy Baldwin to the US Senate, and re-elected Obama as POTUS. Despite that, tonight we also re-elected all our incumbent Republican US House members (republicans control 5 out of 8 House seats), added two seats to the Republican majority in the state senate, and...

RENO - No less than five rallies in five battleground states. That's how Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan is spending the last day of the 2012 election campaign, as millions of Americans ready to head to the polls."We're doing a barn burner today," said Ryan Monday, describing his final sprint to a crowd of roughly 1,000 supporters in Reno, Nevada. "We are crisscrossing the country Mitt and I are because we are asking you to work with us, to stand with us to get our country back on the right track."The Wisconsin congressman next heads to Colorado, Iowa,...

It is being reported that Democratic Party operatives are evicting court-appointed Republican poll watchers from polling places in Philadelphia. Specifically, this reportedly has happened in Ward 32, Div 13; Ward 43, Div 14; Ward 56, Div 1; Ward 56, Div 22; Ward 32, Div 28; Ward 32, Div 28; Ward 12, Div 17; Ward 39, Div 1; Ward 24, Div 9; Ward 18, Div 25; Ward 43, Div 14; Ward 29, Div 18; Ward 65, Div 19; Ward 20, Div 1; and Ward 6, Div 11. The idea is to kick out the Republicans, then stuff the box with ballots...

On election day in Wisconsin the political winds will be blowing from the south at 5 to 15 mph. The forecast calls for a wintry mix of rain and snow in the south with an inch or more of snow in northern Wisconsin, leading to perhaps the chilliest election day in the Milwaukee area in more than three decades. If surveys and recent historical data of presidential election turnouts are correct, the crummy weather may make Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates smile. Surveys of voters show weather is often a factor in their decision to head to the polls....

Last night I watched Mitt Romney’s speech from Bucks County, Pennsylvania and noticed something I hope you’ve picked up on: his Secret Service detail is treating Mitt Romney like a President…and not just like a candidate. What I mean is that the looks on the agents faces, and the way they aggressively keep turning their heads and watching out for Romney, is the same thing they do for the actual President…but it’s not the same level of intensity these guys provide for a mere candidates for office, former presidents, First Ladies, etc. While the Secret Service always strives to do...

In 2008 the weather in Milwaukee was 73 and sunny. In 2012, the high will be 43 and rainy, windy. The college kids will hopefully stay home tomorrow along with the other low information voters.

Have no fear FReepers, we will win Wisconsin and there are a lot good reasons why. 1. Wisconsin is ultimate purple state. In 2000 Gore won the state by less than 5,000 votes out of 2.7 million votes cast. Kerry won in 2004 by only 11,000 votes out of 2.9 million votes cast. 2008 was unusual because Obama won by 412,000 votes out of 2.9 million votes cast. 2. Fast forward to 2012, and the recall election on June 5th. Scott Walker was the devil incarnate to the public employee unions and the Democrats in this state. They went ALL...

With a new American Future Fund poll showing Mitt Romney with a one-point lead in liberal Minnesota, Paul Ryan went to the state President Barack Obama won by more than 10 percentage points in 2008 and drew a crowd of nearly 9,000 people on Sunday. A source who was at the event told Breitbart News Minnesota GOP Chair Pat Shortridge announced 9,000 people were in attendance, and Ryan said another 1,000 people had to be turned away because the venue was filled to capacity. Ryan's campaign appearance in Minnesota represents how the Romney campaign is aggressively playing offense on Obama's...

DENVER – Early voting has officially ended here in Colorado, which means voters need to drop off their ballots or go to the polls in person to vote on Election Day. Early voting began on Oct. 22, and Friday marked the last day voters could request a mail-in ballot in Colorado. According to the Secretary of State’s Office, 1.6 million Coloradans have already returned their mail-in ballots, or have voted in person at an early-voting polling place.

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.norwichbulletin.com/editorials/x1440172530/Our-View-Romney-s-experience-is-exactly-what-our-country-needs-today#axzz2BEEBVn5i

If money talks, then Sarah Palin has finally endorsed Mitt Romney. Newly released campaign-finance reports show that Ms. Palin’s political fund donated $5,000 to Mr. Romney’s presidential campaign Wednesday. Ms. Palin is normally known for her splashy endorsements, but the donation from SarahPAC was made without fanfare: It was buried amid hundreds of pages of donations disclosed on Form 6 of Mr. Romney’s “Filing FEC-831889” made public Friday. Ms. Palin, a former Alaska governor who was the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2008, declined to make an endorsement during the presidential primary, choosing instead to continue speculation that she might...

Minneapolis, Minn. -- Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is making time to rally supporters in Minnesota this weekend. The campaign announced late Thursday that Ryan, running mate of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, will be hosting a "victory rally" on Sunday afternoon at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport...

I was watching either Channel 58 or 3 (I was channel surfing, I don't remember which one it was) and these 3 or 4 women came on, and said they voted for Obama or Clinton the last couple of elections, and then talked about all the bad things going on in the country and they were all voting for Romney/Ryan! Anyone else in CA see this commercial? Do they actually think they have a chance in CA?!

As a former Libertarian presidential contender, the 2008 Libertarian vice presidential nominee, the former chairman of the Libertarian National Campaign Committee, and the man called "Mr. Libertarian" by media across this country, you might be surprised to find I’m supporting Republican Mitt Romney for president. Yes, this Las Vegan has gone “all in” for Mitt. Why? Because Mitt Romney is the only sane choice for Libertarians. It’s simple. Libertarians believe in less government; lower taxes; cutting rules, regulations and mandates to get government out of the way of small business; reining in out-of-control government agencies like the EPA; auditing the...

The U.S. Senate race in Ohio remains a close one. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Ohio Voters shows Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown and his Republican challenger Josh Mandel each earning 48% support. Two percent (2%) like some other candidate, and another two percent (2%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. The survey of 750 Likely Voters in Ohio was conducted on November 1, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin...

Six months ago, in brief remarks at a private fundraiser, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney expressed some chagrin that perhaps 47% of all adult Americans probably wouldn’t even consider voting for him, because they had grown so dependent on payments from the government, and because his opponent, President Obama, forthrightly advocated such dependence and, through policies, tried to intensify it. Before looking more closely at Romney’s actual remarks, which were leaked on September 18th, and how they were twisted against him – not only by Obama’s usual left-wing lapdogs, but also by right-wing pontificates like Bill Kristol, David Brooks, Josh...

This morning, the Romney campaign announced that Paul Ryan would go to Minnesota on Sunday for a pre-election campaign rally. Its a clear sign that the Romney campaign thinks Minnesota is winnable. Where campaigns spend their time in the closing days of a race says much more about their view of the election than words repeated by campaign flacks. Candidates' time is a campaign's most precious resource, and it is deployed only if it's needed or can have an impact. You don't waste a candidate's time on a bluff in the final 48 hours. Last night, the campaign announced that...

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Rep. Paul Ryan in Greeley, Colo., Thursday: “You know, we already have a Secretary of Business — it’s actually called the Secretary of Commerce.”

Wisconsin is going to be VERY close. Within a point either way, no matter what the polls say. Results for recent elections are these: 2000 POTUS 2.7 million voted Gore won by 5,000 votes 2004 POTUS 2.9 million voted Kerry won by 11,000 votes 2008 POTUS 2.9 million voted Obama won by 414,000 votes 2012 Walker recall 2.5 million voted Walker won by 171,00 0 votes So as you can see, Dems have won last three POTUS elections, but Walker won the 2010 Governor election and 2012 June 5, recall election. The untold story of the recall war is that...

Welcome to the Halloween edition of the Colorado Peak Politics ballot return report. It’s no trick, another day of ballot returns show Colorado Republicans are being treated to another day of positive numbers, extending their lead from 2.8% yesterday to 3.2% today. It looks like the enthusiasm on the Republican side is swamping whatever advantage the much-ballyhooed Obama ground game has built. According to a Colorado Peak Politics source, ballot returns as of this fine morning are: Total Votes: 1,076,103 R – 416,681 (38.7%) D – 381,811 (35.5%) U – 268,132 (25.0%) In 2008, Democrats got out to an early...

Governor Mitt Romney has overtaken President Barack Obama by a very narrow margin in Virginia (49% - 44%), according to a Roanoke College Poll conducted after the Presidential debates. Republican George Allen also enjoys a 5 point lead over Democrat Tim Kaine (47% - 42%) in the race for the U.S. Senate seat in Virginia. The Roanoke College Poll interviewed 638 likely voters in Virginia between Oct. 23 and October 26 and has a margin of error of +4 percent. Employing a more stringent screen for likely voters (N=503) increases Romney's lead to 54 percent to 41 percent and Allen's...