BANG the DRUM SLOWLY
He's STUPID!
Posted on 02/06/2014 6:42:40 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
There's been a lot of blathering about who the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is, and so far I've resisted taking part. But I guess I'm kind of curious: Is there much of a case to be made for anyone other than Paul Ryan?
On the substantive side, Ryan sure seems like he's setting himself up for a run. There's his steady series of "unheralded" anti-poverty outreach trips that always manage to be just heralded enough to get sympathetic press coverage. He brokered a budget deal with Patty Murray that was businesslike and low-drama but didn't alienate the tea party crowd too badly. Today, in a hearing about the CBO's report on Obamacare, he acknowledged that the report didn't say that employers would be cutting jobs—points for intellectual honesty!—while also calling Obamacare a "poverty trap"—points for demagoguery! This is all stuff that seems very delicately calculated to stay in the good graces of the tea party base while building up plenty of policy substance cred that will keep him attractive to moderate voters.
On the flip side, who are his big competitors? Chris Christie is toast. Marco Rubio is inexperienced to begin with, and then muffed his chance for statesmanlike glory when he staked his reputation on immigration reform and came up empty. Jeb Bush can't even get his mother's endorsement. Scott Walker is getting buzz, but he strikes me as having too much baggage. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are novelty candidates, not to be taken seriously. And although I used to think Bobby Jindal might have a chance, he's had a rough past couple of years.
Maybe I'm dismissing all these guys a little too glibly. Walker and Bush are certainly serious possibilities. And I admit that Ryan doesn't always give off a vibe that says he's running for president. And of course, we're still a couple of years away from 2016, anything can happen, blah blah blah.
Still, ol' blue eyes sure looks like the favorite to me right now. Anyone want to make a case for one of the others?
Has he turned 100 yet?
Abraham Lincoln?
I believe you are correct. Everyone else that somewhat fits that bill was also a general officer or held some other major office, IIRC.
Paul “cut military pensions” Ryan?
Another Rudy McRomney.
He doesn’t want the job. He wants to be head of the House Ways and Means committee, which is almost as powerful as a president anyway. And he can stay there for the rest of his life. We criticise him a lot here, but if he were chairman during a republican majority congress, in both the house and senate, I think he would do a good job steering the ship in the right direction and would be an asset there.
Without the executive experience.
Watch the SNL depiction of the Veep debate to see what how the media would Palin-ize him.
Congressman Ryan from Janesville, WI. my home state, would be a very bad choice.
I’ve voted for my last RINO.
Watch the SNL depiction of the Veep debate to see what how the media would Palin-ize him.
Congressman Ryan from Janesville, WI. my home state, would be a very bad choice.
I’ve voted for my last RINO.
Mother Jones suggests Paul Ryan will be 2016 nominee.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
We can always expect the Republican party to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. :(
Ryan will be lucky if he survives his primary. He will not be the nominee.
And the day before it was Jeb.
Bwahahahaha!
This guy's on crack. Paul Ryan is the guy forever known as the congressman who stabbed veterans in the back.
He's pro-amnesty, anti-veteran, and pro-waffling.
If there's a wind blowing, he's with it.
Well, there was one one-term former congressman, who also had a failed senate bid under his belt, who went on to free the slaves and convert the United States from a plural into a singular proper noun and landed on the five-dollar bill as a result. Proof, by the way, that not all Illinois lawyers are created equal.
How does Ryan’s home district vote? Isn’t it a district that leans Democrat?
I like Ryan, by the way. I think he’s a policy wonk, which we need, and that he sincerely wants to cut government back in size. I also tend to trust him when it comes to dealing with the immigration issue, but then I’m not one who thinks that a practical solution is to deport everyone here illegally.
Certainly going from an Obama administration to a Ryan administration would be a huge improvement. I’ve got my doubts whether he can pull it off, however. That’s why I was curious about the make-up of his district. Does he have a record of drawing Democrat/Independent voters to his side?
Palin/Nugent 16!!!!!!!!!! A combination I would not have to worry about.
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