Paul Ryan: From Behind the Beltway Curtain to National Scene
When Rep. Paul Ryan unveiled his “Path to Prosperity” budget blueprint in April 2011, the ambitious young chairman of the House Budget Committee was the toast of the Beltway wonk scene.
The seven-term Wisconsin Republican did the think-tank circuit and worked the Sunday talk shows to promote his plan to steer the country away from the fiscal cliff.
And when Ryan personally tangled with Barack Obama over healthcare reform at the president’s 2010 summit, it was mostly Beltway types and political junkies enduring the six-hour televised event.
But with Ryan coming out of the Capitol to become a household name on the national trail (soon, that is — 39 percent of those polled in a Gallup survey released today had never heard of him), becoming the first House member to get a VP nod since Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, it’s likely to have repercussions in these corridors.
The Democrats will have the open window to bring actions of the Republican-controlled House into the national presidential campaign in a way that it couldn’t with a senator or governor on the ticket. Conversely, by taking their nearly two years of majority efforts to force a balanced budget, House Republicans could add gains to their steady climb out of the rock-bottom congressional approval rating of 10 percent measured by Gallup in February.
Ryan’s step into political stardom also reflects brightly on the GOP’s Young Guns program that he founded with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to build up the Republican majority. In the 2010 midterm rout, 62 of 92 candidates in the Young Guns program won House seats, including Reps. Allen West (R-Fla.) and Steve Pearce (R-N.M.).
After that Tea Party cycle in which the grassroots advocated sending fresh faces to Washington, the right is now being rallied by a Hill denizen through-and-though in Ryan.
“What I know in Paul Ryan is he is an individual that came to Washington for a cause. And it was really a cause to try and get this country back on track,” Cantor said Saturday on CNN. “From the days he and I used to sit on the Ways and Means Committee together, we would sit there for hours and talk about his plans for the future and how it is that he thought that we ought to lead, in terms of tax reform, in terms of trying to get the debt under control in this country.”
Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.) told CNN that “he’s one of the young guns who inspired so many of us like me, a citizen legislator, to run for office.”
“He is a great friend and mentor to members of the freshman class,” Hayworth said. “…And he has been the architect of and our teacher and mentor, he’s been architect of a budget plan that actually will work for the United States.”
But is Ryan the “ideological leader of Republicans in Congress” as President Obama claimed in his first remarks about the running mate selection?
He’s not a member of Michele Bachmann’s (R-Minn.) Tea Party Caucus, despite assertions that he’s the face of the Tea Party in Congress as he’s a popular speaker at grassroots rallies. He is a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee, a much larger caucus than Bachmann’s group, which is chaired by another conservative who is not a member of the Tea Party Caucus, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
“[Ryan] has always been a principled voice for positive solutions that will help strengthen our economy and build a future of opportunity and prosperity,” said Tea Party Caucus member Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who leader the Republican Policy Committee. “There has been no greater ally in Congress for those of us fighting to change the reckless habits of the Obama administration.”
Even if some onlookers’ ideas of the “ideological leader” of an ideal GOP range from housecleaner Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) to the hawkish Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) to social conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), it can be safely said that the budget mantra by which Republicans this Congress have been guided is Ryan’s “Prosperity.”
David Frum doesnt like Paul Ryan, which makes me like Paul Ryan even more.
…he is safe after today’s incident in Iowa.
I think Ryan is a good choice for VP. The way democRATS are wee weeing all over themselves since Saturday is all the more convincing; note how the libs are talking out of both sides of their mouths about whether Ryan’s a good or bad choice. The venom is readily apparent no matter what they say. I doubt deep down if Obamao is happy Ryan is on the ticket and I’m damned sure BiteMe has started sleeping with a teddy bear for security. Ryan will make him look more a buffoon than he does on his own.
The country needs a hero and a savior. That’s quite a bit to put on his shoulders, but I have said for months now…the two people who deeply understood the imminent fiscal peril were Paul Ryan and Mitch Daniels.
The “A” team that I was clamoring for, Eric Cantor, Rubio, West, Thune, Noem, Martinez, Haley, …this is face of the Republican Party that can crush the slander, can articulate the danger that the Fabian Socialists have lain on our doorstep.
In order to pull off the swing states, (Ohio, Virginia, Florida, New Mexico), and maybe turn a state or two, it is extremely important to re-brand the slandered image and to build a solid, stable, articulate presentation to duped public.
Tall order. If it got pugnacious (I’m very guilty of wanting some red meat put to the liars, traitors and despicable left, myself), the swing voter will here only so much noise. But, they will respond to the calm, reflective, decent, honorable…relentless rebranding. Luckily Portman, Pawlenty, McDonnell are very nice additions to the effort.
They fit the mold and model. We need to backburner the doddering old guard, the stumbling faux pas prone, the uber-pugnacious, the polarizing types. (the one exception is West, who can get away with it a little, he gets picked on and it can get ugly for the Democratic smear machine)
Romney steps in it too often for my tastes, but, when he’s on firm footing with a subject he knows, he still is polished and very presentable. But, it’s Ryan who is the hero we are looking to. This battleplan must be laser focused on two things. Fight the smears by rebranding, win the swing states.
We must defeat the Government by Ambush. Fight the Chicago Mob thuggery with niceness, genuineness, decency and honor. Go after the Chicago outfit with the Untrashables.
cfbleachers: Spot on! I couldn’t agree more.
“the two people who deeply understood the imminent fiscal peril were Paul Ryan and Mitch Daniels…”
This makes no sense, since Paul Ryan repeatedely voted to balloon the deficit during the last administration.
On Greta’s show Speaker Boehner just said Paul Ryan is “not a knuckle-dragger.” Gee thanks Boehner.
yeh, but exciting conservatives isn’t the problem. 99% would have voted for Romney regardless of the vp pick.
The issue is whether Ryan helps the ticket.
The early consensus seems to be a surprise. It isn’t clear whether Ryan helps the ticket but almost everybody agrees that it shifts the campaign from a war or words between a marxist sociopath vs the man he claims is a murderer to a marxist sociopath vs a murderer and a granny killer.
In a perfect world, or even a 2% perfect world, Paul Ryan would insure a landslide.
In the land of pickpokets and petty thieves, it isn’t so clear.
Words and their visceral impact can have interesting consequences. Right now most Americans overwhelmingly feel that America is on the wrong track. In a situation like that, we look for a leader, someone to boldly step forward and say “I will reverse this direction”. What I hear when Obama or the DNC rag on Ryan is the following: “Ryan is the leader of blah blah blahblah…”
Obama should be careful about throwing around that word “leader”. It has already stuck, and the contrast is not flattering to the President.
Don’t confuse the public frustration with Congress as an individual frustration. That’s a rookie mistake. People who complain about Congress re-elect their Congresscritter with uncanny frequency. I’ve no fears that Ryan will be ‘tarred’ by his 7 terms in Congress, nor his leadership roles within it.
If they can’t tar Ryan as too old or too stupid, he must be smeared as ‘evil’. /but so far, this line of attack seems to stick back on the attackers.
I’m loving this Ryan guy more and more. I thought he was a great choice before all the democrats lost their minds. Now that’s just icing on the cake. Please Axlerot and Obama, keep calling Ryan a leader. I love it.
A gaggle of Chicago sewer rats
A gaggle of Chicago sewer rats
See how they scurry around
See how they scurry around
Romney and Ryan will cut of their tails with a carving knife
Did you ever think you would see such a thing in your entire life
As a gaggle of tailless Chicago sewer rats?
Monday night, from about 10P to 11P (CDT), shifting through channels, Chelsea Handler, Leno, Colbert, Letterman, Mr. Ed, Peers whatever, and the female on MSNBC, all clobbered Ryan, without (so far as I could see) any comparable criticism of the Kenyan. There will be constant repetition until the election! HOW DO WE COUNTER THIS?
One approach would we a site which listed the sponsors of each commie-leftist with contact information so, when Peers Morgan takes a gratuitous shot at Romney, his sponsors would get a couple of hundred nasty messages. The flaw in this approach is, of course, not many normal folks watch these pigs. But, Leno might have to be more sensitive if his sponsors (how many? six, maybe, ten) each got 10,000 protest messages after each commie opening blather.
If you haven’t noticed this issue takes care of itself. Check out their ratings. They are already tanking hard and they just continue to take the same path down the drain.
I will not vote for someone whose budget guts Medicaid by handing it off to the states and wants to hand out vouchers to veterans instead of treating them at the VA.
Paul Ryan – “zombie-eyed granny killer”
Paul Ryan – “taking the compassionate out of conservatism”
Nobody wants to say it, but we will have to raise taxes at some point to pay for our recent spending spree. Maybe some of the $35 trillion parked offshore by our social betters could play a role here.
Obama campaign: August 14, 2012
“Why the hell did Romney have to pick this guy for VP? He’s gonna cost us the election. “
Does It Matter that Paul Ryan Is on the GOP Ticket? August 11, 2012 by Dan Mitchell
http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/does-it-matter-that-paul-ryan-is-on-the-gop-ticket/
Why does Ron Paul insist on a declaration of war?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqPt3Pf2IJk&feature=player_embedded