RR - not Rolls Royce but Romney & Ryan

According to the rumour mill, Romney is considering Paul Ryan as his running-mate.  As regular readers will have gathered I am a confirmed ABO-ist, that is, 'Anyone But Obama', although I might make an exception if Al Gore or Joe Biden were to run!  From 'over here' it is difficult to get an accurate measure of the various leading players but Ryan comes across as a stern but nuanced fiscal conservative with a well-tested doctrine with which to grapple with the looming financial disaster which is approaching the USA.  However, lacking detailed knowledge I will quote again from Quin Hillyer's article in The American Spectator in which he places Paul Ryan 5th out of six choices all of whom he thinks are more or less suitable:

He would remain a superb choice. He can explain Republican budget and entitlement positions better than almost anybody out there, in terms almost anybody can understand; he knows how to attract blue-collar votes; and he might help Romney finally snatch Wisconsin for Republicans at the presidential level.

However, he worries because Ryan is a Congressman from Wisconsin.  The Dems just took an almighty hit below the water-line in their ill-judged attempt to recall their State governor and currently can be described as a deflated, demoralised shambles but, he fears, the hated Ryan on the ticket would galvanise them back into action.  Personally, I don't think that is enough to debar Ryan especially if he can explain to ordinary Americans the nature of the approaching tsunami and his policy to ride it out.

Even so, it is interesting to read of an attack on Ryan, well, perhaps sniper fire would be a better description, from a Congressman further to the Right.  Rep. Tim Huelskamp writes in The American Spectator that he voted against Ryan's budget on the grounds that there were insufficient teeth in the tax proposals - in fact, there were no teeth at all!  Huelskamp reckons that nothing can be achieved without a radical approach to taxation.  I suspect that what we are seeing here is the difference between idealism and pragmatism with Ryan trying not to 'frighten the horses'.

Meanwhile, over at The American Thinker, Rick Moran is touting the possibility of Tim Pawlenty as a running-mate.  From the little I know of Pawlenty's background I don't find that very convincing.  He was amongst the first to drop out of the recent nomination battle and his record as governor of Minnesota is, shall we say, mixed. 

It seems to me that if, as MDA (My Darling Ann [Coulter]) says, Romney is an ideal Republican candidate because the independents will not be frightened of him, then he can afford to have a fiscal conservative as his running mate.  Another consideration is that the feisty, old libertarian, Ron Paul, might run as an Independent candidate and there-by steal votes from the Republican Right, so it might be useful to have Ryan as a 'wingman'!

But, hey, what do I know  . . . ?

 

Comments

[JK]

Offerred without comment - of course!

http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/veepwatch-2-0-boring-all-the-better/

[JK]

Odd that my comment's Capcha's second word was... Theoretical!

[Andra]

Let's imagine that "they" already have this man's scandal details in the file and are ready to "leak" any day now.

What are the odds?

[JK]

I'll be touching the touch screen for Ron Paul myself - og Hod I do hope he'll not take that too comfortably - over here we Independents (yes David, capitilize!) anyway we Independents listen to:

"Well Mr. Romney, given what the President has just done concerning the children of illegal immigrants, what will you do?"

"I'll form a committee with the Congress, to get the economy going - hire a bunch of surveyors to plot the course I've in mind. Next: get the National Park Service to paint a big circle out on the Congressional parking lot and have the Washington Park Service paint a short intersecting line upon which I'll place my toe on.

"Next - to show I mean business - I'll place my toe on the line (providing the weather's neither too hot nor too cold) at which point I'll ask all of Congress to place their toes at my heels. We'll of course do this in a bi-partisan fashion.

"Then. To show I really do mean business. Bi-partsanly and long-termly you understand:

I, President Romney will lead the Congress on the stripe the National Park Service used the $Zillion for the cans of spray-paint so that I, President Romney can lead for the next however many years, Congress and me round in circles."

Statesmanship USA style ya'll UK and EUophiles surely understand.

[David Duff]

The Sabato link was interesting, JK, a lot of names on there that I never heard before.

[JK]

"Oh. And should you have any further questions please, please direct your questions to my new press secretary, Derrick Yerbama.

"Somebody - who knows who - ran a check out of our archives... er... somebody's archives. Anyway, whoever mistakenly baptized that poor dead Anne Frank, "Ello Joe Smith?" call me Ishmael an all that, well, we'll not be mentioning that.

"Those that'd tried with Anne Frank switched focus and now it's to the folks who back in the 1850s left Harrison, Arkansas. We've set our Magic Underwear to forgiving the Baker-Fancher party."

Heh. FOX and Ann Coulter. Don't know of Magic Underwear David? (No. Not yours.)

http://1857massacre.com/MMM/mormon_underwear.htm

[David Duff]

JK, I only have so much time left on this earth and, honestly, I don't want to waste it reading about Mormon underwear! Now, go and lie down in the shade!