Comments on Ryan

Just a few quotes from the blogs and media about the selection of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential running mate:

Daffyd ap Hugh, Big Lizards: "Hey Girl, It's Paul Ryan"

Not only is Ryan a true conservative, he's also a guy who makes both the Tea Party and the Libertarian types swoon--no easy feat, mind you. It's kind of like your daughter bringing her new boyfriend home and you realizing that you're almost as crazy about him as she is. Ryan also drives all the right people nuts, which proves his bona-fides about as well as anything can.

Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Foreign Affairs Correspondent:

"This is a base election. This is not a pick for suburban moms, this is not a pick for women."

Professor William A Jacobson, Cornell Law: Legal Insurrection: "No longer on the donation sideline"

The choice of Paul Ryan, and the reaction, finally got me off the donation sideline.

I just donated to the Romney-Ryan campaign. And in case you were wondering, maxed out. For the first time in my adult life I was proud to do so.

It’s not just about Romney-Ryan, it’s about who we are up against.

John Fund, National Review:

Ryan was judged to have already had the better of President Obama in televised exchanges on Obamacare. His debate with Joe Biden this October might well be remembered as cruel and unusual punishment for dim vice presidents.

Warner Todd Huston, Wizbang: "Paul Ryan Has Already Been an Effective Obama Critic"

Ryan has been the President’s sore spot since the budget and Obamacare debates began early in Obama’s stint in the White House and making him a veep pick for the Republicans is sure to cause no end of heartburn to a president that clearly doesn’t grasp the economic destruction that his own policies have wrought.

The Mysterious AllahPundit, Hot Air: "Romney rolls the dice"

I would have voted for Ryan for president if he had run so, as you might expect, I like the pick. To me, it’s a “clear conscience” selection: We’re going to own our agenda, let our very best salesman make the pitch on the biggest possible stage, and have the country decide. If they want to send The One back for a second term knowing that the consequences are a near-term fiscal meltdown, hey, that’s democracy.

Tom McGuire, Just One Minute: "Ryan's the One"

Paul Ryan for Romney's VP. I would have been excited to see Usain Bolt run for VP but the distance might not be right for him.

Mickey Kaus, The Kaus Files: Neither Ryan nor Obama Defend Medicare"

Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan is certainly open to attack. I oppose it. Dems might make great use of it as an issue. But President Obama is a highly imperfect Medicare defender, having agreed to take Medicare away from 65 and 66 year olds in the failed “grand bargain” talks with John Boehner. Indeed, according to the NYT, Obama thinks he didn’t get enough credit from the press for his willingness to throw Medicare under the bus

Keith Hennessey "The campaign politics of the Ryan budget"

The Obama campaign will attack the specifics of the House-passed budget and attribute them all to Rep. Ryan. It is apples-and-oranges to compare the result of a House-passed budget with the President’s proposal. The House-passed budget includes compromises needed to garner the support of a majority of the House, while the Obama budget is a proposal. The Obama budget was not supported by a single Member of Congress, and the President’s party neither offered it nor an alternative in the Senate where they have a majority. Because they are the products of compromises and votes, legislative results are always messier and less intellectually coherent than any one person’s starting proposal.

A.J. Strata, The Stratasphere “Small-Government” Rep Paul Ryan Joins Team Romney

The 2010 voter no longer has to hold their nose and vote for the father of Romneycare, predecessor of Obamacare. They can now put some energy and hope that the GOP VP will be strong and influential enough to be more than a bridge to the GOP establishment, but an educator and counter force to the entrenched interests who keep looking to DC for solution instead of masses of fiscal savings opportunities.

Robert Stacey McCain, The Other McCain: "Grandma, Cliff, Some Assembly Required"

So we’ll have a few days of “evil heartless Paul Ryan,” then the Democrats will go back to the “clueless rich guy Romney” message and then, if the Romney-Ryan ticket moves ahead of Obama in the polls, they’ll start playing the Mormon card with frenzied desperation.

It’s predictable, and you shouldn’t be surprised.

Charles P. Pierce, Esquire Politics Blog: "Paul Ryan: Murderer of Opportunity, Political Coward"

Make no mistake. In his decision to make Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin, his running mate, Romney finally surrendered the tattered remnants of his soul not only to the extreme base of his party, but also to extremist economic policies, and to an extremist view of the country he seeks to lead.

James Fallows, the Atlantic "Paul Ryan: A Good Choice, but Please, Not a 'Serious' One"

One request: I hope that when reporters are writing or talking about Paul Ryan's budget plans and his overall approach, they will rig up some electro-shock device to zap themselves each time they say that Ryan and his thoughts are unusually "serious" or "brave." Clear-edged they are, and useful in defining the issues in the campaign. But they have no edge in "seriousness" over, say, proposals from Ryan's VP counterpart Joe Biden.

Michael Tomasky, The Daily Beast "A Stunning, Terrible Choice"

Paul Ryan? Really? It’s a stunning choice. A terrible one too. By making it, Mitt Romney tells America that he is not his own man and hasn’t even the remotest fleeting desire to be his own man. He is owned by the right wing. Did I write a couple of weeks ago that Romney was insecure? Well—Q.E.D

David Burge, Iowahawk

“Paul Ryan represents Obama’s most horrifying nightmare: math.”

George Will, Washington Post:

Romney embraced Ryan after the sociopathic — indifferent to the truth — ad for Barack Obama that is meretricious about every important particular of the death from cancer of the wife of steelworker Joe Soptic. Obama’s desperate flailing about to justify four more years has sunk into such unhinged smarminess that Romney may have concluded: There is nothing Obama won’t say about me, because he has nothing to say for himself, so I will chose a running mate whose seriousness about large problems and ideas underscores what the president has become — silly and small.

 The Onion:

It’s okay to admit it. You’re frightened to death of me. It might actually be healthy for you to face your fears now rather than later, when Mitt and I are leading by a few points in the polls and it looks like this thing might end badly for you. Face it: I’m not some catastrophe waiting to happen, like a Sarah Palin or a Dan Quayle. On the contrary, you have the exact opposite fear. I’m a solid, competent, some might say exceptional, politician.

Did you get nervous when you read that last sentence? Is it because you know in your heart of hearts that it’s 100 percent true? Is it because, even if you strongly disagree with my beliefs on Medicare, Social Security, women’s rights, and marriage equality, you know my talent as a speaker and my well-thought-out approach to these issues—no matter how radical and convoluted you find them—might just be enough to win over independent voters?

Do you get chills just thinking about how strong my appeal actually is?

I have another question for you: How scared are you that I can convince people I’m right? Because I’m good at it. No, I’m really good at it. You see, I know how to turn up the charm and charisma without putting people off. Then I back up what I’m saying with arguments that, when they come out of my mouth, sound completely accurate and well-reasoned. And I do it with such passion that people automatically recognize me as a man with deep convictions he will stand up for, no matter what.

The American people love that shit. They love it.