Romney-Ryan?
Four years ago, I was all but certain that John McCain would pick then-Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as his running mate. This year, I was all but certain Mitt Romney would pick Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.
Now, as I head to bed on Friday evening, it appears the presumptive Republican nominee will be tapping the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Paul Ryan.
I wonder if Mr. Romney is announcing this pick nearly three weeks ahead of the party’s convention in order to change the narrative of the past three weeks, when the legacy media has helped hype the Obama narrative and put the former Massachusetts Governor on defense, keeping his own reform agenda — and the incumbent’s fiscal mess — out of the headlines.
“If indeed it’s Ryan,” offers Ed Morrissey, “even the media may have to start focusing on the most serious issues — and that’s bad news for Obama.” As Steven Hayward puts it, “Ryan wants to have an adult conversation with America about the looming insolvency of the welfare state, and he has a serious plan to fix it.” Echoing Morrissey, Hayward adds, “Ryan knows he will face rank demagoguery from Democrats over his plan. He is not afraid of this, and in a face-to-face fight he runs circles around every single one of them.”
And Morrissey acknowledges that “Team Obama will hang Ryan’s budget on Romney,” but adds that “they were going to do that anyway”:
Why not have the man himself as the VP to explain it? Ryan also gives the ticket solid Washington experience, while giving conservatives more hope that a Romney presidency will aim for serious change.
That would be the biggest plus for the campaign, which has had to fight Obama’s strategy of distraction. Ryan’s efforts play the long game on budgets and entitlement reform; he’s one of the few people in Washington talking about not just the fiscal cliff but the long-term fiscal gap I wrote about this week in the Fiscal Times.
This pick shows that Mitt Romney is serious about playing that “long game on budgets and entitlement reform”, on addressing the pressing fiscal problems facing this nation. With Ryan on the ticket, Mitt Romney has indicated that he intends to run on more than just his resume, more than just against Mr. Obama, but intends to make the case for bold reforms.
Perhaps, he heeded the advice of the governor of Mr. Ryan’s home state.
Not quite sure about the politics of the pick. The Democrats will savage Mr. Ryan, but, they would have savaged any qualified individual the presumptive Republican nominee picked.
Mr. Ryan, at least, has shown the ability to defend himself and his policies in a manner that impresses his critics. And the last two budgets he wrote have passed at least one chamber of Congress. And that’s an accomplishment which has eluded Mr. Obama. His last two budgets haven’t even received a single vote in either house.
(While I think it’s a good pick, I do question the timing, wonder if Romney could have served his campaign better by delaying the announcement. That said, it does change the campaign narrative.)
ADDENDUM: In previous posts, I have called Ryan one of the few grown-ups in Washington, particularly when it comes to matters fiscal.
UPDATE: Ed Driscoll offers his two cents, including this reference to another blogger:
“The Choice Makes It a Choice,” Jonah Goldberg adds. “Ryan reinforces the message, grounded in objective fact, that the Republicans have a plan for the future while the Democrats are simply about kicking the can,” Jonah writes. “The vice presidential debate will be awesome. If I had to predict right now, Ryan won’t so much trounce Biden as Biden will trounce himself. All of the talk about how Ryan is smarter and more knowledgeable than Biden will get deep in Joe’s head. Biden’s insecurities will spill out on the stage like overturned chum bucket.”
Emphasis added.
UP-UPDATE: About the same time as I was learning about the imminence of the Ryan pick, I was reading Mark Steyn’s column on how Obama has made things worse for Americans: ”More debt, more dependency, more delusion.” He also expressed his unhappiness with what he called “Romney’s insipid message”, holding that it “does not rise to the challenge this nation faces.” Paul Ryan, in the words he has spoken and the legislation he has authored, has shown an awareness of the nation’s fiscal peril.
Thus, in tapping the House Budget Committee Chairman, the presumptive Republican nominee has begun to rise to the challenge.
UP-UP-UPDATE: Just now reading Jonah’s post in its entirety. Among the pros he offers for the Ryan pick:
The GOP base, particularly the tea parties, will now be even more enthusiastic because this gives them a much more solid reason to want Romney to win as opposed to just wanting Obama to lose.
It shows that for all of the talk of Romney’s timidity and cautiousness he can make a bold decision when he needs to.
The more I think about it, the more I like it, esp. as per (1) Ryan’s articulateness and (2) the boldness of the pick (as per Jonah’s second point above).
FROM THE COMMENTS: Ted B. (Charging Rhino) is not certain that Ryan will help Romney win the election, but believe the “HUGE advantage” of the selection is . . .
. . . that it will shift the campaign narrative back to the Budget and the Economy, and who better to discuss that Budget then the current-Chrmn. of the House Budget Committee who knows and can expand on how the Federal Government is, and should be, spending OUR money.
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Morrissey is right about the Democrats trying to hang Ryan’s budget on Romney anyway, or at least on the Republicans generally. In this year’s Senate race in Nevada, for instance, all we hear from Democrat Shelley Berkley is alarmist ads about how Republican Dean Heller “voted to end medicare,” and so on. So it will be good to have Ryan out there making his case on the budget as a response to the Democrats’ usual scare tactics. Maybe some of the Republicans will actually catch on to the need to go on offense on budgetary issues.
Comment by Kurt — August 11, 2012 @ 3:46 am - August 11, 2012
Kurt, where in Nevada are you again?
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — August 11, 2012 @ 3:59 am - August 11, 2012
Northern Nevada–in the Reno area.
Comment by Kurt — August 11, 2012 @ 4:10 am - August 11, 2012
Romney needed a ‘firebrand’ as a running mate. He now has it!! This will be the spark to get the lackluster out of the Romney effort thus far. Sure, the attacks are already for the Sunday talk shows but Ryan is no slouch. He is young, aggressive, articulate and can handle the brickbats that will be tossed against him but he has to convince the American public he is not pushing grandma over a cliff. He can do it. We needed excitement…this is it!!!!
Comment by benj — August 11, 2012 @ 5:49 am - August 11, 2012
Thank goodness he didn’t pick one of the RINO’s. This pick shows Romney is serious about the economy.
Comment by Richard Bell — August 11, 2012 @ 7:12 am - August 11, 2012
This feels like he’s just dialed a huge amount of risk into the ticket. It’s certainly thrown a huge amount of Ayn Rand into it. And not everyone likes Ayn Rand.
Comment by Numberslucent — August 11, 2012 @ 7:17 am - August 11, 2012
And I happen to be in Norfolk today, lol.
Comment by V the K — August 11, 2012 @ 9:15 am - August 11, 2012
Whether it will help Romney win the Election….I just don’t know. But the HUGE advantage will be that it will shift the campaign narrative back to the Budget and the Economy, and who better to discuss that Budget then the current-Chrmn. of the House Budget Committee who knows and can expand on how the Federal Government is, and should be, spending OUR money.
“It’s the Economy, Stupid.”
Comment by Ted B. (Charging Rhino) — August 11, 2012 @ 9:28 am - August 11, 2012
And let’s not forget the most important aspect of our future VP:
He gives me a Boehner.
Comment by Ignatius — August 11, 2012 @ 9:56 am - August 11, 2012
It’s officially Ryan. Glory hallelujah!
Even though it’s not Rubio, I’m still satisfied. The veep debates with Ol’ Plugs Biden should be worth two bags of popcorn alone.
And LOL to Ignatius above.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — August 11, 2012 @ 10:43 am - August 11, 2012
Senator John McCain was going to pick DEMOCRAT, Senator Joe Lieberman as his running mate in 2008, but his advisers told him to pick a Republican. McCain remains an idiot for his “bipartisan” nonsense at the expense of his principles.
Comment by Sebastian Shaw — August 11, 2012 @ 11:07 am - August 11, 2012
My, my, my! A Ryan vs. Biden debate. I would pay good money to see that. Lets hope he can convince the “village idiot” to at least 2 debates. Could be biggest viewed show next to the Romney vs. Obama debates.
Game on!!
Comment by mixitup — August 11, 2012 @ 11:43 am - August 11, 2012
Bingo!
Either way, having an adult conversation or answering “rank demagoguery” by running circles around the Demagogocrats, the Obamanauts are setting themselves up for trying to punch their way out of a paper bag.
The campaign is now framed around the Ryan budget plan. The “independents” are now the target of basic education about the economy, fixing the funding of entitlements and exposing the smoke and mirrors of continued deficit spending.
Most voters know the country is on the wrong track and that whether Obama is a nice guy or not is not what is important.
I look for an already strongly energized TEA Party to be even more energized by this clear signal to them from Romney.
Comment by heliotrope — August 11, 2012 @ 12:51 pm - August 11, 2012
What gets me is this past week SHOULD have ended Obama and buried him for good.
Comment by TGC — August 11, 2012 @ 11:38 pm - August 11, 2012
In a sane and better world, Obama would be polling at 8%
Comment by V the K — August 13, 2012 @ 11:12 am - August 13, 2012
I love that term! Gives me something to use against the tired ‘Repugnican’ meme and its variants.
Comment by RSG — August 13, 2012 @ 12:03 pm - August 13, 2012
[...] my first post on Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan to be his running mate, I quoted Jonah Goldberg who insisted that the “vice presidential debate will be [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » Maybe we should excuse Joe Biden for his bad week:Paul Ryan just got in his head & caused his insecurities to spill out — August 17, 2012 @ 7:18 pm - August 17, 2012