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.
