I’m tired of upside down tickets. 2008 should have been Palin/McCain, and 2012 would be much better as Ryan/Romney (although better still with Romney not even on the ballot). Still, our choices are what they are. If Obama wins, there is less than a 1% chance of America surviving as a free country until 2016. If Romney wins, the destruction will be much slower, and we will probably have a 50-50 chance of reversing the slide after 2016. That’s a huge improvement, and probably the best chance we have left.
Paul Ryan wrote Roadmap for America Futures, a detailed analysis of our fiscal crisis and how to get out of it.
Obama wrote Dreams of My Father — a fabricated ode to his deep seated narcissism.
Stark contrast
I will never forget 0bama wanting to speak with Ryan privately after Ryan destroyed him in place with his financial acumen.
A Wisconsin boy, too.
I’d have preferred West or Petraeus, but that’s me.
Having a financial team with creds is actually a pretty good way to go, intellectually speaking.
We need some real SOBs to cut the chains of debt and ridiculous trading practices. We are being looted right and left.
We also need to round up the communists in Congress and send them to a deserted island—together. For the children.
In other words this choice should reassure many conservatives that it will be the strategy of the campaign to depart from the passive aggressive approach of the John Boehner House of Representatives and embark on an explicit attack on the Obama economy. I hope the attack also includes a indictment of Obama as a rank socialist, a radical Alinsky redistributionist whose definition of "transformation" ultimately means the death of capitalism and democracy. I fear this is unlikely for these reasons which follow. I also hope that this attack includes a clear warning to the people of the existential threat facing the nation recently described by Marc Steyn as a "death spiral."
Many of us question why Romney has been relatively passive in his campaign against Obama when he was ruthlessly aggressive in his attacks which brought down competing Republicans in the primaries. I think his advisors tell him that he is pursuing two different electorates in the primaries as opposed to the general. In the primaries one is dealing with a committed base who want red meat and in the general one seeks to enlist the independents and undecideds who supposedly resist negative campaigns. I think this is much overblown. History reveals that truly vicious negative attacks such as those waged by Lyndon Johnson against Barry Goldwater were extremely effective with independents who became convinced that Goldwater would blow up the world. I believe that successful negative campaigns do not experience blowback when the candidate who wages it is likable. I think that both Ryan and Romney have the kinds of personas that will shield them from such criticism if they choose to attack, but that, of course, will be Ryan's job for which I think he is well-suited if he is temperamentally fit.
Ryan will not be flummoxed in the debate and he is very unlikely to make any serious gaffes on the stump so, from a practical political point of view, he fulfills the first criteria for a vice presidential pick, he will likely do no harm. Of course, that consideration follows only after the pick can be confidently presented as the man who can succeed to the presidency in the event of tragedy. Ryan fills those requirements splendidly.
His selection focuses the nation on the state of the economy. That is the terrain on which Romney has elected to run, probably at the expense to some minor extent of litigating the social issues. I am a social conservative in many respects as well as a fiscal conservatives but I am not concerned in this cycle about the ticket concentrating on spending, taxes, and jobs because I believe that the nation is careening toward a fiscal cliff from which there could be no recovery which would satisfy a conservative. This is a question of saving democracy and capitalism not advancing social issues which will die with the Republic-apart always from abortion which remains a dealbreaker for me.
I am concerned that the candidates will look like two nerds in a pod. Balancing that is the knowledge that Ryan is extremely likable, extremely telegenic, and therefore able to carry a negative message against Obama without appearing mean-spirited. Both of these guys are tall, physically attractive, physically fit and not the caricature by any means of nerds.
No candidate, of course, comes without negatives and Ryan's budget plan does open the door to demagoguery from the left but that is only the kind of demagoguery we get with Ryan rather than the kind of demagoguery we would get with another pick. In other words, we know how our enemy operates and if we are going to be compelled to wage a campaign against demagoguery let us at least do it when the subject matter is the budget.
My other choice for the slot was Marco Rubio and either man would have the advantage of being the right age in 2020 to make a credible candidate. I believe we are going to win the election this cycle and, if Romney can perform credibly, the next. But I am extremely concerned about the downstream effect of the demographic wave that is engulfing the nation with immigrants who simply do not share the culture, language, or understanding of the rule of law, of capitalism, of democracy all of which are part of our national fabric. Those who are not immigrants are being "transformed" at a frightening pace into welfare and entitlement dependents who will be likely to vote their purses.
Good choice, Romney!!! You have my vote now...and a $25.00 campaign contribution. And.....Wisconsin. you gave a smashing victory to Governor Scott Walker, just a few weeks back. Time to give the electoral votes of the great state of Wisconsin to Mitt Romney & “The Wisconsin Blue Collar Kid”, Paul Ryan!!!
And.....Yep, you good folks down Virginia way, please turn out with gusto and determination Today in greeting Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan as they travel on their campaign tour bus through the great state of Virginia. Folks, we got us a country to save here!!! Let’s get on with it, big time, starting today!!!
I can’t wait to watch Ryan debate with Biden.
EXCELLENT PICK!!!
Query:
What time did Romney’s team send out their “official app announcement”?
I don’t have cell phone/texting, so I did not sign up for it. I am curious as to what time they finally sent it, given that the rumors were pretty solid by 9PM yesterday.
I like the Ryan choice
given all the possibilities, it is a smart choice
it does not pander to Hispanics (I wanted to keep Runio safe in his Senate seat where we need him)
it’s not an exact “social conservative” (won’t be automatically used against the ticket on that score by the left)
it’s not a lighting rod the left will easily demonize, anymore than they will demonize the whole GOP for the fiscal cleanup we all want
Ryan’s fiscal analysis and ideas appeal to most Conservatives, at least in some degree even if not
completely
as any VP choice must be, it must have a greater degree of positives than negatives - the Ryan choice does that
MY one question is, are we/will we be lacking some resolve in the GOP House caucus without Ryan there, and will the GOP keep his seat in the House
I have a little different take this morning: If this pick of Ryan as his running mate helps the weak, ineffective Romney, that’s a good thing and the thought of a Plugs/Paul showdown is exciting.
But as a WI. resident, I have a concern. We will be losing a WI.rep who is our pride and the House will have to replace him as chairman of the budget committee.
Veeps usually don’t do anything beyond the importance of attending openings of new DMV offices.
Of course, with Ryan, that would be a huge waste of talent.
The GOP and Mittens will get this...right..RIGHT?