Romney's VP? Paul Ryan

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

It's official:

NORFOLK, Va. – Mitt Romney unveiled Saturday morning Representative Paul Ryan as his choice for running mate, a bold move that comes at the end of an intense selection process and is likely to shake up a presidential race out of the summer doldrums.

...

Ryan’s selection is bound to animate a conservative base that has largely been skeptical of Romney, even as he has repeatedly sought to make inroads. As the architect of the Republican budget blueprint that cuts spending and recasts how Medicare and Medicaid are delivered, Ryan has developed a reputation as a policy wonk and a rising star within his party.

I was feeling pretty confident that Pawlenty was going to be the guy, and I'm glad he's not. I was hoping for Jindal, but not so much because I don't like Paul Ryan - I still feel like he'd be more powerful in a Republican Congress. Regardless, he provides some significant conservative credentials to the Romney ticket, is going to get the base pretty excited. Here are two of my favorite Ryan moments for the initiated:

EDIT: A friend posted this New Yorker profile of Ryan, to give you a good idea as to what he's like.

Comments

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

Well at least they've got their only demographic majority locked up. Everyone else... lolololol, well the party is over folks. Time to move on.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

At the rate you're creating new tags, we'll have to start deleting some of the old ones soon.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Switch them with ones that we have. My browser won't show the list for whatever reason.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

I have somewhat mixed feelings, only because I think Ryan is such an important member of Congress. But, oh sweet Jesus, Mary, Joseph and all the Saints in Heaven, I cannot wait for the VP debates now.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I don't know who's strong enough in the House to take up his torch if Ryan's not there anymore, but this pick makes a lot of sense for Romney, and I suspect too much sense for those inside his campaign for the sense they must have been getting on the ground.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Ryan was chosen because they found out Ayn Rand was no longer available.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Worry not, I'm sure she's in a better place, surrounded by the Founding Fathers.

...With pitchforks and torches in their hands.

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

Has anyone noticed how Ryan is partly an anagram of Ayn-Rand?

R-y-a-n + a-n-d...

Ryan and who? That is the mystery. There is someone else.

ROMNEY?

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

I love the odd alliance of heretical Christians and crypto-objectivists.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

Republicans wouldn't elect Rand, actually. She was too atheistic. Her love life was far too scandalous. And much too unacceptably gender-non-conforming - I mean, just look at the "serious" female national candidates the GOP has recently flirted with: Palin? Bachmann? Rand would hate those people. It's a bizarre feature of the modern GOP that, while it embraces certain decontextualized elements of Rand's worldview, it always takes a man to really present a serious Randian vision for the country.

Never mind that the idea of a Randroid running for political office seems deeply contradictory. I think politicians rank second only to journalists, in Rand's novels, as the archetypical villains. If Ryan really understood Rand, he'd be much less interested in playing second fiddle to Romney than he would be - I dunno, running as governor of Wisconsin with the intent of seceding from the U.S., maybe? If he stayed in politics at all. Apart from his direct patrilineal ancestors, Ryan's family is in the construction business. That would make for a better fit for a Randian demi-god.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

I'm having trouble trying to think of the last time a VP candidate was chosen primarily because the candidate had a credibility problem with the more extreme elements of his party. Oh, I guess there was Palin.

Ryan's better than Palin insofar as he seems competent. I guess the platform they're going to run on is, "We have a plan," which is supposed to be revolutionary and inspiring after two years of almost pure obstructionist politics coming from the GOP.

Though I'm surprised that anyone on the right who's worried that Romney is insufficiently committed to their ideals would be comforted by Ryan's selection. Isn't this just another example of Romney doing whatever he thinks he needs to do to get elected? He's had such a hard time convincingly playing the role of a small-government conservative; you think pulling Ryan out of the House proves that he won't Etch-a-Sketch his way to the center after he's elected?

It's a desperate move that just helps to demonstrate that there's no "there" there, just more bait for the bait-and-switch that's in store for conservatives if they manage to get Romney elected.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I'm having trouble trying to think of the last time a VP candidate was chosen primarily because the candidate had a credibility problem with the more extreme elements of his party. Oh, I guess there was Palin.

The only way this comment makes any sense is if you believe that the entire base of the party is extreme. That caricature may work in left wing circles, but not in the real world.

Ryan's better than Palin insofar as he seems competent. I guess the platform they're going to run on is, "We have a plan," which is supposed to be revolutionary and inspiring after two years of almost pure obstructionist politics coming from the GOP.

Ryan's "better" than Palin because he fills two necessary roles - Palin was picked for one reason, and one reason only: shore up the conservative base. Ryan absolutely does that, too - he's given Republicans a reason to vote FOR Romney as opposed to voting AGAINST Obama - but Ryan also gives Romney some necessary credibility in key areas of the national discussion: entitlements, government reform, and the economy. You now have a government policy wonk who can navigate the legislative channels for the businessman using his private sector experience.

Contrast that with Palin, who had a bipartisan record of reform in Alaska and was a conservative darling, who merely doubled down on the McCain "maverick" narrative. It largely worked on an ideological level, but the economy pretty much guaranteed it wouldn't win.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

Ryan isn't a woman. Hence, he's "so much more competent", even though he flings the exact-same dingbat nonsense Palin does.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

I guess the platform they're going to run on is, "We have a plan"

So did the Cylons.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Well, I just looked at his voting record in a detailed post about him somewhere else...and he is a conservative dream boy if you are for banning abortion, against medicare, against expanding the Children's health care program, against gay marriage, against treating mental illness on the same level as physical illnesses (but *for* getting your bought weapon within 1 day and against the 3 day wait - if anyone can make a logical connection between the two), much more in the same vein. He is a catholic who is hugely in favor of granting religious institutions favors and he is *loved* by the NRA.

So yep, conservative dream boy. :)

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

That will consolidate the more right-wing vote around Romney.

And Ryan will bring the debate back to the "economy, stupid". The public has been occupied a lot with Romney's recent gaffes.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, nominate the man whose idea of cutting the budget is a bigger budget than the one we already have now. Fucking brilliant. Next we'll nominate ex-members of the KGB to head the DHS.

[rowsdowerisms.livejournal.com]

I always thought C. Everett Koop looked like Connery in The Hunt for Red October

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

Neither of these guys has anything on......

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Oh him. The guy who couldn't get elected dog catcher in the most conservative Republican parties in the last 40 years. Seriously, he didn't even win 3 states. Which by party rules means, he doesn't get a chance to speak at the convention. UNLESS Romney let's him.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to Ryan making a "community organizer" comment about Obama, considering that Ryan's only experience in private industry involved saying: "Hi, I'll be your waitperson tonight!"

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Ryan drove the Wienermobile - literally, he drove the Oscar Meyer Wiener car as a job. I wonder if he had to wear a special hat.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

lulz.

i call this election over.

$20 bet?

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

I still have an open wager with Jeff involving use of an icon, sadly it has been declined thus far.

[nevermind6794.livejournal.com]

This pick is hilarious. It shifts any debate that might've been had about the economy to a debate about Ryan's hugely unpopular Medicare plan, which alone seals up Florida for the Democrats. It allows Obama to run against the entire House GOP, highlighting all the absurd votes they've made and making it substantially more likely that Democrats retake the House. It puts Romney in the position of defending his VP pick against his "no private sector experience" line. It potentially poisons Ryan as a future candidate for pretty much anything.

This is going to be fun. I don't think the pick could have been any better for Obama.

[squidb0i.livejournal.com]

"This is going to be fun. I don't think the pick could have been any better for Obama."

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Mitt Romney finally figured out a way to get me to vote for Barack Obama.

[whoasksfinds.livejournal.com]

mitt romney finally figured out a way to get me to vote for mitt romney.

[squidb0i.livejournal.com]

Is it too early to break out the champagne?

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

ahahhahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Obama should probably prepare the Bacardi.

[musicpsych.livejournal.com]

He doesn't pass the "can you see him as president?" test for me. Even with his years as Rep, he still seems green, and doesn't really have executive experience (to my knowledge). I'm wondering if the thought is to get the candidates in before they have time to get embroiled in scandals. (That might be what happened with Obama, too.)

I was hoping for Pawlenty - in fact, I still wish he hadn't dropped out so early. We saw how much the Iowa straw poll was worth... I could have supported a Romney-Pawlenty ticket, or at least given it some consideration. This Romney-Ryan one is one I'll have to come around to.

Thanks for posting the New Yorker link. I at first had confused Paul Ryan with Sean Duffy. It makes me feel better to know that Paul Ryan was not the one who was on The Real World.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Might have made him more popular though.