Ryan reactions
Dave Weigel: Paul Ryan’s Party.
Fred Barnes: Romney the Fighter.
Mike Allen: Brilliant or Political Malpractice?
Months ago, a Romney official was walking through the pluses and minuses of the various V.P. possibilities, and said at the very end of the spiel: “Only one person on the campaign wants Paul Ryan. That’s Mitt Romney.” The two had just campaigned together, and proved to have superior chemistry.
Althouse saw it coming.
I didn’t see it coming, but I’m glad it came. We’ll get to have a clean fight now.
Instant update: Like many conservatives, I really liked this part of Romney’s introduction.
“He doesn’t demonize his opponents. He appeals to the better angels of our nature.”
“There are a lot of people in the other party who might disagree with Paul Ryan. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t respect his character and judgment,” Romney added. “We’re offering a positive governing agenda that will lead to economic growth.”
I prefer a positive campaign. I’ll take negative if I have to — as we do in Canada just now — but positive is better.
Update again: Seniors seem to like Ryan…
You think? I don’t.
Regardless of anyone’s personal opinion of Ryan (and I think he’s a smart and amiable guy,) his plan is among the easiest in human history to demagogue. More importantly, it’s almost impossible to defend in a 30 second ad or 60 second debate response. Regardless of what anyone thinks about the Ryan plan, it can’t be positively defined on a bumper sticker
Effective right now, the Ryan Plan is the central issue of this campaign. Since it’s not the presidential nominee’s plan – which differs in several important respects from Ryan’s – that can’t be good.
The bottom of the ticket is going to outshine the top, which us never a good idea. Ask John McCain if you don’t believe me. Romney’s dull to the point that it could actually be a medical condition, and he already has enough of a problem getting people to talk to him. Now he’s going to be roundly ignored for the next three weeks in favour of his number 2.
The nightmare scenario is that the Obama campaign runs exclusively against Ryan and ignores Romney entirely, making him irrelevant even to his own campaign.
If Mitt Romney had one thing going for him in this campaign, it’s that he’s temperamentally conservative and not given to desperation hail-Mary moves. By picking Ryan, he’s showing that he’s spooked by the polls and transparently pandering to the Tea Party. In my opinion, that’s not going to end well for him.
Look at successful vice presidential picks over the last 45 years. Mondale, Bush, Gore, Cheney and Biden. They tend to be almost anonymous managers that are more governing choices than campaign stunts. Now look at the stunt picks. Agnew, Eagleton, Ferraro, Quayle and Palin.
Ryan falls somewhere between the two.
This solidifies the election campaign as a campaign about big things — not nickel-and-dime issues like tax forms and the like.
Yes, I think this is a good pick, because I think this is a fight that Republicans are ready to fight and win.
Well, first there’s going to be a fight about which candidate’s plan gets written into the platform and actually becomes the message, Ryan’s or Romney’s. That should be fun to watch.
If, as I expect, Romney’s plan gets shunted in favour of Ryan’s , people are going to start wondering why he’s on the ticket at all. And that’ll be a helluva good question.
Unlike most VP nominees, Ryan has a constituency all his own and he’s at least as influential in the party, if not more so. You don’t get as far as Paul Ryan has at his age without a healthy dose of ambition, and it’s hard to see him putting that away for what will almost certainly be a losing campaign.
A good indication of Ryan’s intentions will be whether he drops his re-election bid for his House seat. If he doesn’t, you’ll know that he’s building his future rather than the Romney campaign.
The potential for Romney to be emasculated by his own running mate is enormous. If that happens, he’s done.
Of course Ryan won’t shelve his House bid — he’s running unopposed. Happens all the time — Biden was dual-listed in ’08, too.
True, but no one would seriously suggest that Joe Biden had the political juice or the future that Paul Ryan does.
They all stay on the ballot in their old jobs, unless laws prevent it. It’s just what’s done.
Well, this will clearly shift Romney’s campaign to a more medicare-focused slant.
I always feel that Romney’s camp will pick Rand Paul because of his father’s iconoclastic cred and solid tea party support.