Beat Me to It
April 22nd, 2011 - 3:01 pm
I’d been making notes for handicapping the GOP field, but Krauthammer has already done a solid and amusing job of it.
Best part? The field doesn’t look quite as weak as my gut has been telling me.
Not surprising that a big-government, inside-the-beltway Republican like Krauthammer would love the “fiscal-hawk-of-convenience” Paul Ryan. I can certainly see Romneycare being damning against Mitt Romney, and it should be. I can’t see how the same people doing the damning can overlook Paul Ryan’s votes for the budget-busting Medicare Part D and TARP. Most of the candidates he listed can be lumped into the general category of “more of the same” – they don’t argue against big government, they just have slightly different ideas of how big it should be.
Until things get crazy enough to make it possible to elect somebody like Ron or Rand Paul or Gary Johnson, then it doesn’t really matter who gets in – the argument remains in the domain of “should we have spend 24% of GDP or 25% of GDP?”
So he voted for TARP, so what. If TARP had actually been used as promised it might have done some good. We would have bought toxic assets, been able to prevent or at least slow down the the number of defaulted loans and would have eventually been able to sort the wheat from the chaff and sold back many of these assets and recovered most of the money instead of giving it away. So he voted for TARP, big deal.
So you’re saying that it’s OK that banks write worthless mortgages, take the profits, and leave taxpayers with the losses? Creating an even larger moral hazard than already existed, giving a massive competitive advantage to incompetently- and corruptly-run institutions against those who actually made good loans? Nice to see that the love of crony capitalism is still alive and well in the Republican base.
Not to mention the fact that whenever the government is given a huge slush fund, it’s never spent on what’s intended. Ever. Nice to know that blind naiveté is still alive and well in the Republican base. The rest of us saw this coming a mile away.
Oh, and you didn’t have any response for his support of wildly expanding Medicare (he was for it before he was against it, assuming he’s not lying about being against it now).
I agree with you here. I am Conservative. I oppose the very notion of TARP. No bailouts. “Oh, but the world will end!” Yeah, yeah, the sky is falling. I get it. Bull! These companies should have been forced into bankruptcy courts. That’s why we have them. Once there, they would have to sell off assets, and better managed companies could cash in and/or take them over.
The only crisis was for those companies, not America. You either believe capitalism works or you do not. You do not get to have it both ways. No bailouts!
the surprise, to me, in the krauthammer article is the dog that didn’t bark. he did not include john bolton. bolton has said he is seriously considering running and a bolton/ allen west ticket is garanteed to make the lefties heads explode.
which is always a good thing.
I would love to see a Paul Ryan/Eric Cantor ticket.
(although, Mitch Daniels/Eric Cantor would suit me just fine as well)
Here is my thinking. The “move the needle” argument is going to center around fiscal issues. The debates will be crushing defeats on the facts, the logic, the reasoning and the CAUSES…so the media will have to be working triple overtime to distort everything they can.
Both Ryan and Daniels would remain unflustered, have a much better comfort zone in the numbers and would score well with the center. Anyone to the right of them is an absolute fool to sit home and let Obama win a second term.
Cantor would crush Biden. In fact, they may have to invoke a slaughter rule, like in Little League…which is where Biden belongs in a debate.
And, he may just well peel off a statistically significant piece of the Jewish vote, a Democratic bloc that has been repeatedly slapped in the face by this administration.
If this upcoming election is going to be decided in the center and if the top priority issues are all related to wonkish things…then the path to assured victory is to cement those things, rally behind them and not make a bloody free-for-all circus out of the primary process.
Which is, of course….EXACTLY what we are going to do instead.
Ryan as Prez? I think not. He is a one-issue guy. He completely lacks other qualifications and experience. Foreign affairs is the main job of President, not domestic.
Bolton is the only candidate with the creds in this area. Well, Romney too, somewhat. (Although, surprisingly, Palin is starting to really make some progress in this area. See Hong Kong, Israel, India.) Ryan might be good as VP, and 4-8 years under Bolton would round him out nicely.
Here’s a fun fantasy. Ryan is the VP nominee. A Prez debate is scheduled focusing on the budget and the economy, but the Prez nominee has Ryan fill in for him, claiming he couldn’t make it or whatever. So, Ryan ends up debating Obama on the budget and the economy. Totally bushwhack Obama. just really get into his head.
I’ve got this paragraph all teed up for every time I see the terms “debate” and “2012″:
THERE WILL BE NO PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES IN 2012, for the reasons you have given above. Obama is going to refuse to debate.
“In case y’all hadn’t noticed, I’ve been in the news from time to time during the last four years [appreciative laughter] — for holdin’ a job that has a lot of presidential-like responsibilities [laughter, applause]. And by now, I’m sure people know where I stand on the issues. I don’t see any need to go flying around, meetin’ these Republicans who use debates to snippet me and quote me out of context [chuckle of acknowledgment] just so we can draw more blood and divide the country further. And besides all that, it turns out this job keeps me busy [laughter]. For the past four years, I feel like I’ve had the job of two presidents — one to do a sort of Take Two of the eight years before me, and another to simply do the work I wanted to do . . . “[continues campaign speech to ongoing applause and laudatory press].
You heard it here first.
“He completely lacks other qualifications and experience.”
Sounds like our current suit-in-chief.
Foreign affairs is the main job of President, not domestic.
I have to disagree with you here. Foreign affairs is certainly a very important part of a president’s job and we’ve seen what a terrible job Obama is doing at it. However, the president is the Chief Executive of the very large and powerful executive branch of government. That gives him a huge influence over domestic matters. A president can issue executive orders, as in the Clinton era staffer who stated, “Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Cool!” Again, we’re seeing what a terrible job Obama is doing at that. The president is also the Commander-in-Chief of the military and once again, we’re seeing how bad Obama is doing at that job.
Marc, the job of the President is to be the CEO of the country and handle the issues that are most pressing, prioritize them, delegate what is outside of his highest and best use skill sets and surround himself with the best and the brightest.
Ryan certainly doesn’t take a back seat to Obama in foreign affairs….many, if not most of the key issues to be handled…stem from monetary and fiscal issues. Ryan understands those better than Obama for sure.
Most importantly, at least to my eye at the moment…WINNING THE WHITE HOUSE…and fixing this damn death spiral fiscal mess.
Which issue takes precedence over those two things? I guarantee…if we don’t pull out of this economic death spiral, every foreign affairs issue we currently have will look like a Girl Scout pillow fight in contrast to how it looks today.
I say go wonkish, because I believe that’s the best way to save this land of ours. Don’t give the media an easy time of it. Ryan, Daniels, Cantor…make it VERY difficult for the media to play their 15 point, “fixer” and “rigged outcome” role.
Bolton could be Secretary of State and be just as effective….maybe moreso.