…for picking a VP nominee who might be a “game changer” on the level of ideas. Let’s face it: Romney was tanking. It wasn’t “Hail Mary” time, but he had no offense and he defense was leaky. The cautious approach wasn’t working.
Om the other hand, the media is already calling Ryan a VERY RADICAL choice. And I’ve written before that Americans are actually CONSERVATIVE when it comes to health care, entitlements, and so forth. They like what they have when it comes to employer-based health care, Medicare, and so forth, and they assume all changes will be for the worse. That’s why so many hate ObamaCare because it will runin their employer-based health care and gut Medicare. And that’s why so many are suspicious of Ryan’s alternatives and may hate them when they know more. The movement from DEFINED BENEFITS to DEFINED CONTRIBUTIONS is necessary, but it’s not really choiceworthy (most people think) and actually scary. Can Romney/Ryan convince people that there’s no alternative, and they can get the change done in the best way possible? I sure hope so, seeing the Democrats are thrilled to be able to shift the focus of the campaign ever more from Obama’s record to Ryan’s alternative.
On the third hand, Ryan will ignite THE SPIRIT OF 2010 with much of the base. He’s in some ways a smart and wonky version of Palin–a looker, a hunter, a dad, a believer, a courageous maverick, etc. Maybe the libertarian-leaning millennials will embrace him, seeing as they know they’ll never see a dime of Social Security or Medicare anyway. And the campaign will certainly ascend from the spirit of the accountant and the manager to first principles and all that. The ticket will now much more clearly stand for something.
I’ve explained before the benefits of the Mormon/Catholic alliance.
August 11th, 2012 | 10:22 am
Romney’s pick is pure genius. With it, he can’t go wrong. Romney is like that first guy who brought a wolf in the house.
He sees that Ryan is far more conservative than he, and having Ryan as a competing influence in Washington, in his current role as one-man think tank for the House republicans, would be problematic for a Romney presidency; much like Tip O’Neal and Ted Kennedy were for President Carter.
A President Romney would be pushing an agenda far short of the conservatism that a Rep. Ryan would push, so Romney invited the wolf in and would now be able to hunt for his votes with the assistance of what would have been his greatest adversary.
A Rep. Ryan would have won votes for his positions among Tea Party reps, and others would have feared going home to face constituents for having voted with Romney.
A VP Ryan will either adopt more moderate stances or be removed to the pen, where VPs usually go to lament their new career choice. And a VP Ryan, unless he relents, would stand about as much chance of moving up the totem pole in eight years as what’s his name, Bush’s VP.
Of course, Romney may very well lose this election because, among other things, his choice in a running mate. But better for Romney to lose in November than to lose a multitude of battles to his own party, in the House, throughout a tumultuous presidency.
It’s hard to imagine that the first governor to bring about mandated health care and who ordered that marriage licenses be issued to gays would actually change his beliefs so much as to implement the Ryan Plan as president. (And yes I know that he made the order in compliance with the order of the Mass. court, but he did it after the court had given plenty of time for the legislature to adopt laws banning gay marriage; he did it without fighting for those new laws.)
Maybe Romney has decided to either win with Ryan out his way in the future, or go ahead and lose now with Ryan scaring seniors to vote for the President. That’s genius.