Posted on 08/11/2012 4:31:23 PM PDT by lasereye
About a month ago, I wrote a piece evaluating Mitt Romney's possible running mate selections. Part of my thinking was that it would be good to lock myself in on the various picks. I rated Paul Ryan in the middle of the pack. Here's what I wrote about him:
The Wisconsin congressman might not have unusually conservative social views, but his economic stance is terrible for a Republican Party that wants to attract blue-collar whites. Romney has endorsed the Ryan budget plan, so maybe his negatives are already built in, and maybe it would be good to have a vice president who could explain that plan well. I doubt that, though; in this case the “no harm” category should probably be a “negative-one.”
Overall, I gave Ryan pluses for being a social conservative (but not over the top), representing a swing state (and a swing area of a swing state, at that), not having Bush ties, and having sufficient experience. I gave him minuses for not representing a swing demographic, not having gubernatorial experience, not having endorsed Romney early, and for being otherwise controversial.
Having had about three hours and four cups of coffee to digest the Ryan pick, I’m still of the same mind. I think this is overall a middling-to-poor choice. But it isn’t a middling pick in the sense that there are a bunch of mushy pros and cons. The pluses and minuses are pretty stark.
Here are some additional thoughts on this. First, the “not a bad pick” thoughts:
1) This is about Romney picking a veep he’s comfortable with. Ezra Klein writes that this “is an admission of fear from the Romney campaign. You don’t make a risky pick like Paul Ryan if you think the fundamentals favor your candidate.”
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
I didn’t say they were WASPs; I said the image was WASP. Don’t think the folks who vote for ethnicity are going to split hairs. He would have been better off with Rubio. That said, I hope to be proven wrong.
Right! It’s racist, but we can call each other WASP. They can’t call us WASP!!lol
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.