Romney-Ryan: The Turnaround Boys

[Geee]

American Spectator:

Mitt Romney's choice of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan as his running mate demonstrates a boldness and strength in Romney that few other actions could have proved. Ryan is the best choice logically, politically, and substantively and, in Ryan, Mr. Romney has chosen a running mate that is his peer, not just a caboose on a long, heavy campaign train.

As I wrote back in April, Ryan is a fact-driven choice that will help Romney among all the key groups -- conservatives, moderates, and independents alike -- who can now be motivated enough to turn out and vote.

The first fact is that Ryan is Romney's peer: a man of strong character and political achievements who could be a powerful part of a Romney administration. As the Almanac of American Politics says of Ryan, he is "regarded as an intellectual leader in the GOP for his unrivaled influence on fiscal matters." That intellectual horsepower is one of the first things that come up whenever you talk to the people who know Ryan best, the House members who have worked with him for years.

One of them is Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), one of the strong conservatives who has been fighting the good fight against Obama's spending spree. (Pence is running for governor of Indiana this year.) Shortly after Romney and Ryan appeared on Saturday announcing Ryan's selection, Pence told me, "I have known and worked with Paul Ryan for the past twelve years and count him as a personal friend. Paul has the character, intellect and optimistic vision our next president will need at his side to turn this economy around and put Hoosiers back to work. Paul Ryan also possesses an understanding of the federal budget that our next administration will need to restore fiscal solvency and save future generations from massive deficits and debt."

Ryan's intellect is matched by his debating and speaking skills. In February 2010, at Obama's "summit meeting" on Obamacare, Ryan -- politely and firmly -- schooled the president on the devastating impact Obamacare will have on the budget, on Medicare, and on our economy. After Joe Biden dissed the Republicans by saying they weren't qualified to speak for the American people, Ryan told Obama: "…I respectfully disagree with the vice president about what the American people are or are not saying or whether we're qualified to speak on their behalf. So we are all representatives of the American people. We all do town hall meetings. We all talk to our constituents. And I've got to tell you, the American people are engaged. And if you think they want a government takeover of health care, I would respectfully submit you're not listening to them." (It's worth watching the whole six-minute video you'll find here.)

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Romney-Ryan

 

By Rich Galen

The selection of Rep. Paul Ryan to be Gov. Mitt Romney's running mate is an excellent choice.

Nevertheless, the press corps happily bought into the Obama campaign's early response that, as the Washington Post's Dan Balz wrote: "There was no one on Romney's short list of contenders they wanted to run against more than the chairman of the House Budget Committee."

The great thing about that statement is: It would have worked no matter whom Romney had picked. In this age of everything anyone has ever said or even thought about anything being available instantaneously on-line, there is no such thing as a candidate that can't be savaged in a 30-second ad by one SuperPAC or another.

The other alleged short-listers: Senators Rob Portman and Marco Rubio, former Governor Tim Pawlenty; and current governors Bob McDonnell (VA) and Chris Christy (NJ) are able and capable men but even I could mount a pretty complete opposition research campaign against any one of them. And I like them.

The Ryan pick will -- or should -- change the tone of this campaign. For the past month the Obama and Romney campaigns have sounded like two teams trash talking over the fourth-grade tetherball championships in a schoolyard. The most nuanced discussions have rarely risen to the level of "nanny-nanny-boo-boo."

On Friday night I wrote, in a column for the Daily Beast: Ryan is a darling of the Tea Party because of his budget proposal, which, like the Affordable Care Act, has been talked about far more often than it has been actually read by the people who are doing the talking.

On Saturday, in another Daily Beast column, I more-or-less plagiarized myself by writing: Ryan is one of the very few people in America who have actually read the Ryan budget, and therefore, has the upper hand in any questions about what is in it.

If you want to read it, there's a link on the Secret Decoder Ringpage today.

On Saturday night, Beth Meyers described to reporters the process by which Ryan was chosen and the cloak-and-dagger activity that got him and his family to Virginia for the announcement. This, in press-speak, is known as a tick-tock (as in the sound of a clock) taking the reader through the process in a linear fashion.

There was a scene where Ryan snuck out the back door of his house in Wisconsin, walked through the woods behind his house to a street where he was picked up in a car driven by his Congressional chief of staff, got on a plane wearing a baseball cap and shades and the process moved on.

http://cnsnews.com/blog/rich-galen/romney-ryan

 

[Geee]

The Promise of Paul Ryan

There can be little doubt that the addition of Paul Ryan to Mitt Romney’s presidential ticket has galvanized Republicans in a way that Romney himself has mostly failed to do. The $3.5 million fundraising haul that the Romney campaign reported within 24 hours of the vice presidential announcement is testimony to the enthusiastic approval of the GOP base. But whether Ryan will be an asset in the general election will depend on his ability to rally Americans to the cause of entitlement reform and economic growth just as he has his Republican admirers.

One problem with the Ryan pick is that, improbable as it may seem to political junkies, he is an unknown quantity for much of the country. Polls show that a majority of Americans know little about the Wisconsin Congressman. Polls also show that most people are unfamiliar with the budget reform proposals that have made him a hero on the right and a hate figure on the left. Of those who have heard about Ryan’s reforms, a majority is confused about how they would work. The hopeful notion that Ryan can transmit some of his intra-conservative star power to the Romney campaign thus runs afoul of the hard truth that much of the country is clueless about who he is.

A related problem is that the public does not really understand the importance of the issues – government spending generally and the runway government spending on entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security specifically – on which Ryan has made his reputation in the Republican Party. While Americans routinely overestimate how much the federal government spends on foreign aid, they just as often underestimate how much it spends domestically. For instance, a CBS poll in 2011 found that less than a quarter of the public knew that Medicare and Medicaid take up nearly 20 to 30 percent of federal spending. Similarly, nearly half the country underestimates the size of Social Security spending. Given that Ryan’s signature policy agenda calls for restructuring these programs, for instance by reducing the government’s role in their provision through competition and consumer choice, the fact that much of the country does not recognize the threat to their long-term solvency makes that agenda a more difficult sell nationally.

 

The good news for the Romney campaign is that few are better positioned than Paul Ryan to explain the gravity of these issues and to make the case for reform over the status quo. A lifelong policy wonk who started reading federal budgets in high school, Ryan has not only a broad understanding of federal spending policies and their budget impact but also a unique ability to communicate the need for reforming government spending in a way that is coherent, accessible, and rich in supporting evidence. His 2010 “Roadmap for America’s Future,” an ambitious budget proposal for reforming entitlement programs and reigning in the national debt, has been the most influential factor in forcing Republicans to make these issues a top legislative priority over the past several years. Among them was Mitt Romney, who hailed Ryan’s plan as “marvelous.” Adding Ryan to the ticket makes that policy connection explicit.

 

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/jlaksin/the-promise-of-paul-ryan/

[Draggingtree]

In joining Romney, will Paul Ryan get his 'clear choice' campaign? (+video)

 

Back in February, long before he got the vice presidential nod, Rep. Paul Ryan urged Mitt Romney to run an 'affirmative' campaign, laying out how he differs from Obama. Picking Ryan may signal Romney's intent to do just that.

By David Grant, Staff writer / August 13, 2012

Rep. Paul Ryan ® of Wisconsin speaks at a Monitor-hosted breakfast for reporters in Washington, D.C., February 16.

http://www.csmonitor...-campaign-video